Monkey Bread

Another easy lovely recipe from Saveur magazine - this one is a lovely recipe for you to do with the kids. Not much can go wrong and the kids will have a lovely time. This is one of those recipes where you know if you put in all this delicious decadent stuff, nothing can go wrong, and if something does, it tastes great anyway!

Cinnamon Monkey Bread

(original recipe here)

3-3 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 cup Butter, softened plus more for greasing
1 1/4 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk
1 tbsp Active Dry Yeast
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp Salt

Heat 2 tbsp of butter with milk and 1/3 cup water on medium heat until warm. Transfer to a bowl of a stand mixer with a hook attachment. Add 1/4 cup sugar, and the yeast and stir to combine. Allow to activate the yeast and foam, about 10 minutes.

Turn the mixer onto a medium speed and add the flour and salt. Beat until all combined and the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer to a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow to rise until double in size.

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Grease and flour a 10" bundt pan.

Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl and set aside. Melt the remaining butter in a pan, add and combine the brown sugar and set aside.

Pinch small rounds from the risen dough (about the size of small cherry tomatoes). Toss the small balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture (the kids will enjoy this part!) and fit snugly into the prepared bundt pan. Pour the butter-brown sugar mixture slowly and evenly all over the dough, allowing it time to get into the nooks and crannies.

Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Serve warm. (with vanilla ice cream or a caramel ice cream). :)

Easy Homemade Bread

I've enjoyed baking my own bread for years now. I was very into making different kinds of breads, and then kinda stopped doing that for a while. I always wanted to bake my way through Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I'm going to try and do that this year. Think that would be super cool. His recipes are always perfect and clear.

Anyhoo, this recipe is from another source, but it has been my go-to recipe for bread for all these years. Its easy, and completely versatile. You could use it to bake a regular white loaf, or add ingredients to make it a flavoured bread. The proofed dough could be also used to make buns or garlic twists. Or really anything. Its a blank slate. Add your signature.

Basic White Bread

4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Instant Active Dry Yeast
3 tsp Salt
4 tbsp Sugar (this makes it a little sweet, feel free to reduce the sugar to your taste level)
2 tbsp Buter, melted
400-450 ml Water

Mix all the dry ingredients, and add water a little bit at a time until they come together into a shaggy ball. Add water, or flour, or both, if needed (use extra flour sparingly). Put the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. While kneading feel free to add any flavors you might like, or leave it plain. Place in a well oiled bowl, cover with a cheese cloth and store in a warm place until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Punch down the bread, knead a couple of minutes. Now you can shape the dough as you'd like. Here, I have made two loaves. One is a Cinnamon Swirl Bread. For that, I stretched the dough out into a rectangle, covered with sugar and cinnamon powder and then rolled it up tight, shaped it into a loaf and placed in a well oiled loaf pan.
For the other one, I had already added fried onions, green chillies, cilantro and cumin to the initial dough and made an Indian-style masala bread.


You can also leave it plain. Just take the dough and shape into a loaf or buns or a free form loaf and place in a well oiled pan. Cover with the cheese cloth or linen and allow to double again in size.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when knocked on gently. Allow to cool slightly, take out of the pan and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. This wait allows the bread to settle and enhances flavour. I think.

Serve warm. So so good.

The Indian Masala Loaf

Slices of Indian Masala Bread

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Other Breads in this blog that uses this bread recipes: Vegetable Il Gianfornaio, Pesto and Garlic Bread and Buns.

Cinnamon Rolls

Oh my goodness. Do you have one day that you just want to indulge? Well, this is the perfect food to indulge in. Its absolutely incredible! I think this was an original Daring Bakers challenge, but I found the recipe on Andrea's incredible blog.


Cinnamon Rolls
(tweaked a little from Andrea's Recipes)

6 1/2 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
5 1/2 tbsp Butter
1 Egg
3 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 tsp Yeast
1 1/4 cups Milk

For the Cinnamon layer:
6 1/2 tbsp Sugar mixed with 1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

For the Glaze:
2 cups Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
6 tbsp Milk

Cream the butter. Add the sugar and salt and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat again.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and yeast. Add to the butter mixture. Stir everything together. Add the milk and mix to combine. Empty the contents onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. The dough was really sticky, and I added at least another 1/4 cup of flour as I kneaded. The dough will become soft and absolutely lovely to work with.

Place in a greased bowl, cover with a muslin cloth or cling wrap and keep in a warm place until doubled in size.

Roll out the dough to a rectangle. Spread the cinnamon-sugar mixture all over the rectangle. Roll into a log. I didn't roll it too tight because I didn't want to lose all the lovely texture. Once rolled into the log, cut at about 1" intervals. I got only 6 buns, but maybe I should have cut it thinner.

Place the buns on a greased baking tray. Cover with muslin and let it rise until doubled.

Preheat the oven to 175 deg C. Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. While the rolls are baking, make the glaze.


To make the glaze, just whisk together the icing sugar, milk and vanilla until thick and smooth. Pour over the rolls while still warm out of the oven. Now, I don't know why, but my glaze never ever looks white - I've tried it a few times, and it is always transparent. But it tasted amazing.


Thanks, Andrea, for a fabulous recipe.

Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

I have a friend who had a birthday recently. She said all she wanted for a gift was a bread a month. Sort of like the Fruit A Month (anyone see that Everybody Loves Ray episode?) Club except of course that this is ... bread!

This month she requested a sweet, nutty bread. I'm not someone who enjoys sweet breads and wouldn't normally have tried this recipe, but her request got me to look into Peter Reinhart's recipe for Cinnamon Walnut Raisin Bread. And it's another winner from Reinhart!



Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread
(original recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice)

3 1/2 cups Unbleached Bread Flour (I used All-Purpose)
4 tsp Granulated Sugar
1 1/4 tsp Salt
2 tsp Instant Yeast
1 1/4 tsp ground Cinnamon
1 large Egg
2 tbsp Shortening (I used 3 tbsp Butter)
1/2 cup Buttermilk or Whole Milk (I used Whole Milk)
3/4 cup Water, room temperature
1 1/2 cups Raisins (I used golden raisins)
1 cup chopped Walnuts

For the Cinnamon Sugar:
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 tbsp ground Cinnamon

Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, yeast, salt, cinnamon). Add the egg, butter, milk and water and mix until it forms a doughy ball. Turn the ball out onto a floured counter and begin to knead until the dough is soft and elastic (approximately 8 minutes). Sprinkle in the walnuts and raisins, a little at a time, and knead for an additional 2 minutes. I've never kneaded in chopped nuts before, so I found that a little difficult but the whole thing comes together beautifully as you knead).

Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl and cover with muslin. Let rise until doubled in size, approximated 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into two equal parts. This next part is optional - If you want that lovely swirl filled with cinnamon sugar, then go ahead. Otherwise, you can just shape each half into a loaf and go to the next step. For the swirl - Gently press each part out into a rectangle (about 8" by 5"), with the long side facing you. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over one side of the rectangle. Now tightly roll, starting from the long side facing you. Seal the end and place in a loaf pan, seam side down. Repeat for the other rectangle. Reserve maybe a teaspoon or so of the cinnamon sugar.

Spritz the loaves with olive oil spray, cover with muslin and let it proof at room temperature for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.

Place the loaf pans in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the pans 180 deg and bake for an additional 30 minutes (this is to ensure even baking. It really works for me as I've found that the back half of my oven is hotter than the front).

The finished loaf will be golden brown on top and will make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. Roll the top of the loaf while warm in a bed of the reserved cinnamon sugar (alternately you can sprinkle some on top of the loaves) while the loaves are warm. The caramelized sugar will give it that extra crunch and burst of cinnamon which is oh-so-delicious!


Let it cool for atleast 1 1/2 hours before slicing and eating.

This is for Susan @ Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting.

Vanilla Apple Cake

Mmmm... There's nothing much to say when you're eating this cake - its just sooo sooo good that you're not really concerned about what to say about it! Another winner this month from Maria and Rosie of Sweet and Simple Bakes.


Vanilla Apple Cake
(recipe from S+SB)

9 oz (about 2 sticks) unsalted Butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
1 1/3 cups Caster Sugar
4 Eggs, beaten
1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour + 1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 small Apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
2 tbsp Demerara sugar
¼ tsp Cinnamon Powder

Heat the oven to 180C. Butter a cake tin and/or line with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla and beat together. Slowly add in the flour (be as gentle and quick as possible as the flour tends to weigh down the beautiful lightness of the creamed butter and sugar).

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Top with the apple wedges - sinking them in a little as you place them. Here's where you'll think oh-my-goodness there are too many apple wedges and not enough space, but they'll shrink and you'll be glad you added all the apples!

Sprinkle with the Demerara sugar and the cinnamon. Bake for about an hour or until the top is slightly browned and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.


Serve warm with vanilla ice cream (the vanilla ice cream is not optional!).