Saturday, May 17, 2008

Monkey Bread


I've decided to play dutiful 1950's housewife and make sunday breakfast for my crack-of-dawners. No cold cereal, or frozen waffles for my Jr. Gourmands, we're having Monkey Bread.
My real-life 1950's housewife Mom used to make Monkey Bread for us, wearing pearls and a marvellous shirtwaist without a hair out of place, all the while singing cheery show tunes (not really, but you get the general idea). I requested the recipe, but she must have lost it in the flood of '96 or the great move of '01. So I've reinvented Mom's Monkey Bread and used maple syrup instead of brown sugar for a cozy sunday morning feel.

Maple Walnut Monkey Bread
Instead of refrigerated biscuit dough I used 2 boxes of refrigerated ready-to-bake challah egg twist rolls. Follow thawing directions on box. Once thawed cut each roll into quarters. Grease a bundt pan and spread 1/2 c. chopped walnuts on bottom of pan. Mix 1/2 c. granulated sugar with 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Coat each challah dough quarter in cinnamon sugar. Place sugar coated pieces in bundt pan on top of the walnuts, pressing pieces lightly together until all quarters are used. In a saucepan melt 1/2 c. butter/marg, 1/2 c. maple syrup. Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Pour over monkey bread. Place in 350F oven for 25 min. Serve warm with leftover cinnamon sugar if desired.

2 comments:

polkadot said...

i was lucky enough to taste the original in san diego in 1993, and lucky enough to have a loaf of this sent to me by none other than rachel herself...and it rocks!

To The Burbs said...

I used to get Monkey Bread every morning I rollerbladed from the uws to my office on Hudson Street.
Thanks for the memory. Can we do a whole wheat version next time?