Lemon Monkey Bread

Lemon Monkey Bread - made March 29, 2013, recipe adapted from Bakerlady and Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

I took last Friday afternoon off for Good Friday and I had intended to make hot cross buns since I'd never made them before and they seemed holiday appropriate.  But I didn't have currants and I got sidetracked (squirrel!) by one of the recipes I'd pinned on pinterest for Lemon Monkey Bread.  The original recipe called for using ready-made frozen dough but since I had the afternoon off, I decided to take the time and make the dough from scratch.  I used the recipe from Baked Explorations for their Monkey Bubble Bread but instead of dipping in melted butter and cinnamon sugar, I went with lemon to mark spring and Easter.  I'm really glad I did because this worked beautifully.  The lemon gives it lots of flavor and the sugar crunch was the perfect texture atop the bread.  If you're short on time, you can use ready-made bread dough but the Baked recipe is pretty easy to make and came out well so use that if you can.

Monkey Bubble Bread recipe from Baked Explorations:
1 1/4 cups whole milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Line a 9 x 9" square baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a small saucepan, warm milk to slightly above room temperature then remove it from the heat, add the yeast and whisk to dissolve.  Do not warm milk to more than 110 degrees or it'll kill the yeast.
3. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar and salt until combined.
4. In a small bowl, beat the egg with a fork and add it to the dry ingredients.  Mix on low speed until combined.
5. Keeping the mixer on low, slowly stream in the milk until combined.  Add the melted butter and mix until the dough comes together.  Replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook attachment.  Continue to mix on medium speed until the dough becomes silky and tacky but not sticky, 8 to 10 minutes.  The dough should mound together and easily come off the bottom of the mixing bowl.
6. Spray the bottom and sides of a large bowl with cooking spray.  Place the dough in the bowl and roll it around to make sure it is completely covered in oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest in a warm area until the dough has doubled in size, approximately 1 hour. If you don't have a "proof" function on your oven, turn your oven on to its lowest setting, let it heat up to just past 100 degrees and turn oven off.  As long as your oven isn't too warm, you can let your dough rise in it - just make sure it's not warmer than 110 degrees or you'll kill the yeast instead of letting the dough rise.
7. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.  Use your clean hands to push down and deflate the dough.  Remove it from the bowl and pat it into a mound.  Cut off equal pieces of dough and roll into balls.  If the dough is too soft to roll smoothly, shape with your hands and gather the edges of the dough, tucking it underneath to form balls.  Place the balls in even rows in the prepared pan 9 x 9" pan.  Don't crowd the dough balls as they also need room to rise.  If you have too many, use a slightly larger pan.
8. Mix lemon zest and sugar together in a small bowl. Sprinkle HALF of the lemon sugar mixture over the dough balls. Cover and let rise till doubled.
9. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from pan.
10. Combine glaze ingredients. Drizzle over bread while still warm.

Brown Sugar Butterscotch Pound Cake

Brown Sugar Butterscotch Pound Cake - made March 27, 2013, recipe adapted from Lady Behind the Curtain

I made this on a weeknight because I wanted to use up some milk and I figured I'd take it into work the following day.  I had an early morning meeting the day I was bringing it in so I only had time to cut a chunk to take a picture of later then I brought the rest of the cake in and hopped into my meeting.  I intended to go back to the communal kitchen and take a piece for a snack later.  After I emerged from my morning meetings just over an hour later, the cake was gone.  Crumbs stared back at me from the empty cardboard plate that once housed an entire (minus a chunk) Bundt cake.  Huh.  Okay, I guess they liked it.  Considering I'm one of the first people to get into the office in the morning and I swear I was only tied up for an hour, maybe an hour and a half, that told me more than words that this was a good cake.  Or people were hungry and had cake for breakfast.  (Those are my kind of people, btw.)

I hadn't even frosted it like the Lady Behind the Curtain did.  I modified her recipe to exclude the toffee bits and pecans.  Instead, I added butterscotch chips because I thought those would bring out the brown sugar flavor.  I left off the caramel drizzle (but included the recipe below) because I figured the cake would be rich enough with all that butter and the butterscotch chips.  Plus it was getting late and I wanted to read a new book I'd gotten that week instead of making frosting - the bookworm won out over the baker.  Good thing I had that taste test piece I had held back and was sitting on my kitchen counter for when I got home.  Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to tell you that this cake is excellent.  Great brown sugar and butterscotch flavor and terrific pound cake texture.  It didn't come cleanly out of the Bundt pan because the butterscotch chips sank to the bottom and clung stubbornly when I inverted the cake onto its plate.  But this is a case of looks don't matter and taste trumps all.

Cake
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips
1 recipe Caramel Drizzle

Caramel Drizzle
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick baking spray with flour.  Set aside.
2. Beat the butter until creamy.  Add sugars, beating until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture in thirds, alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  Beat until just combined.  Stir in butterscotch chips.  
4. Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Bake until a wood pick inserted near the center of cake comes out clean, 85 to 90 minutes.  TIP:  Cover the top with foil to prevent excess browning is necessary.  Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.  Spoon Caramel Drizzle over cooled cake.  

Caramel Drizzle

1. In a medium saucepan, combine condensed milk and brown sugar; bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking frequently.  
2. Reduce heat, and simmer for 8 minutes, whisking frequently.  Remove from heat; whisk in butter and vanilla.  Let cool for 5 minutes before using.

Butterscotch Toffee Squares

Toffee Squares - made March 23, 2013 from Milk & Cookies by Tina Casaceli

I meant to get this post up yesterday since I'd already made it a week ago but on Saturday I discovered that OnDemand was showing the first 2 seasons of Game of Thrones for free until Sunday.  I'd already watched the first 6 episodes of Season 1 thanks to my local library but hadn't been able to get the others.  So "free" was the magic word.  Which meant I spent a good part of the weekend on my couch, watching more TV in a day and a half than I usually watch in a month.  Then it'll probably be a long dry spell until I can get my hands on the Season 3 episodes.  In the meantime, I have the books to keep me busy and am currently listening to the audio book of Book 3, A Storm of Swords, while I'm on the treadmill.  Workout's done for the day so I can finally get this up.

This is the bar recipe where I used the leftover coconut topping mixture from the Almond Joy Brownie Easter Baskets.  If you don't make that version, you can still follow the recipe below.  This is one of those rich, gooey, awesome bar cookies where it's hard to go wrong.  You can substitute different flavors of chips, add nuts, omit the toffee and do other creative things to make it the bar cookie of your choice.  I added toffee bits for the crunch and white chocolate chips to pair with the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips.  These are pretty rich so you may want to cut them small.  Then try to talk yourself out of having a second or third piece.

2 cups (8 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup (5 ounces) unsalted butter, chilled slightly
2 cups (14 ounces) light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup toffee bits
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup (4 ounces) sweetened coconut flakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Line a 10-inch square baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda in a small bowl; set aside.
3. Cream the butter on low speed with the paddle attachment of a free-standing electric mixer. Increase to medium speed until butter is creamy, about 3 minutes.
4. With the motor running, gradually add the brown sugar, beating until very light and creamy.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the vanilla and, when blended, slowly beat in the reserved flour mixture.  While the dough is still streaky, remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape the paddle clean.
6. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the toffee bits and 1 cup of the chocolate chips, beating until evenly distributed.
7. Scrape the dough into the prepared pan and, using your hands, carefully press into an even layer. 
8. Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup chocolate chips over the dough, followed by the butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips and coconut. 
9. Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until the cookie crust is golden and the topping is bubbly and lightly browned.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely before cutting into squares. (Note: mine took ~1 hour to bake because I used a more liquid coconut topping from the Almond Joy Brownie Easter Basket recipe.)

 

Creamy Coconut Bars

Creamy Coconut Bars - made March 19, 2013 from Confessions of a Semi-Domesticated Mama

I discovered this recipe on pinterest and it led me to a blog called Confessions of a Semi-Domesticated Mama.  Normally I just link the recipe and the blog and try out the recipe but something on her blog caught my eye and I ended up reading the "About" section.  I'm glad I did because it gives such a clear picture of a nice, loving family who extend that love to their adopted children, their birth children and each other.  Take a look when you have the chance; it's well worth reading.

By now, when you see that I've made something on a weeknight, it's usually because I need to use up some ingredient before it expires and it's not going to make it to the weekend.  I think more than half my recipes are tested just for that reason.  In this case, of course, it was milk.  This recipe uses 2 cups of milk so it was perfect. Plus I like anything coconut and this reminded me of my mom's bibingka recipe, in that it seemed like a coconut custard.  This turned out to be not quite a custard, not quite a bar.  It wasn't as firm as bibingka but not as soft as a custard.  The Bisquick part of the batter (no matter how you mix it in) sinks to the bottom during baking and forms a thin crust. The coconut stays on top. It was pretty good....but then again, did I mention how much I love coconut?  I think I prefer the bibingka recipe though for something with a firmer texture but this was a great recipe for something quick and super easy that takes care of my coconut fix.

1/2 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
4 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds until combined.
4. Pour mixture into greased 9" x 9" baking dish.
5. Bake for 50 minutes.
6. Let cool then slice into bars.

Caramel Overload Blondies

Caramel Overload Blondies - made March 17, 2013 from Something Swanky

This recipe was initially going to be my homage to an Easter dessert.  The original recipe from Something Swanky called for using the Cadbury caramel eggs in the blondie.  I love those caramel eggs (not the Cadbudy creme eggs that try to make it look like you're eating an egg-looking sugary thing inside a chocolate shell but the caramel-filled chocolate eggs).  But every time I looked at them covetously at Target, they're pricey for a pack of 3, considering (insert snobbery here) they're "grocery store chocolate".  And I needed 24 of them.  Fortunately, I had those Cadbury caramel-filled milk chocolates from my last trip to London.  I conveniently ignore how much those things cost me at Heathrow duty-free because, hey, they taste better.  But really, you can use any caramel-filled chocolate you wish for this recipe, including Rolos, Milky Way Caramels, Caramellos, etc.

For added caramel goodness, I did succumb to grocery store chocolate and added chopped up Milky Way caramels on top during the last 5 minutes of baking.  You can never have too much caramel, I say.  These were freaking to die for.  I probably could've baked them a few minutes longer than I did although the toothpick did come out clean when I tested it.  If you want your blondies a bit more cakey, bake them longer.  If you want them gooey-chewy (like me, myself and I), don't overbake them.  If this had had chocolate in the batter, it would've been like fudge.  As it is, it was like chocolate-less fudge in texture. Ecstasy.

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 dozen mini caramel Cadbury Eggs (rolos or caramellos or Milky Way caramels would work too)

1. Mix all of the ingredients, except for the mini cadbury eggs, in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment.
2. Add 1 dozen of the Caramel Cadbury Eggs into the dough.
3. Press the dough into a greased or lined 9×9 pan.
4. “Squish” each of the remaining 1 dozen Caramel Cadbury Eggs and press them into the dough.
5. Bake at 350º for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

Caramel Coffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

Caramel Coffee Chocolate Chip Cookies - made March 20, 2013 from A Lil Country Sugar

If this cookie looks familiar, it's because it is.  I made a modified version earlier.  This time around, I found the Starbucks Via caramel coffee packs at Target pretty easily so I thought I'd make the cookies as they were originally intended, with the caramel coffee flavor.  I don't drink coffee but don't mind coffee-flavored baked goods.  Caffeine doesn't really boost me up either although there are days like today, which I started off with a 7 am meeting with my colleagues in Asia, where I almost wished it did.

In any case, if you like coffee, this original version of the cookie might be a good pick-me-up.  I have to admit, I preferred my plainer version.  The texture on both is the same since I had increased the flour in the first recipe to compensate for the coffee powder but the added coffee flavor didn't do anything for me.  The caramel flavor was a bit more masked since it competed with the coffee flavor.  I have a stronger preference for caramel than for coffee so I would probably make the plain caramel version rather than the caramel coffee version.

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup caramel syrup (I used salted caramel from Williams Sonoma)

3 3/4 cup bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 package Starbucks VIA ready brew caramel flavor coffee

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks
1 cup caramel bits

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars until well combined. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and caramel sauce until well combined.
2. Place all dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, salt, Starbucks VIA, baking soda) and whisk together. Add slowly to wet ingredients mixing until everything is combined. Mix in chocolate chunks and caramel bits.
3. Using a large cookie scoop (ice cream scoop will work) place on baking sheets. Using a fork or the pointy side of a meat mallet, press cookie down in a crisscross fashion. Lightly sprinkle with fleur de sel or salt before baking. Bake 10 - 12 minutes.

Cookies and Creme Cookies

Cookies and Creme Cookies - made March 16, 2013 from The Picky Palate

I was meeting my cousin and her son, Vanilla King, for dinner last weekend and I didn't have any vanilla cookie or snickerdoodle recipes on hand to try since it was a last-minute get together because one of my nieces was visiting me for the weekend.  But I did have this recipe from The Picky Palate that I wanted to try.  While Vanilla King doesn't care for chocolate as a general rule, it turns out he does like Oreos.  Praise be.  Something I can work with.

The Picky Palate's original name for this recipe was Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I had to rename it because I did modify it by omitting the chocolate chips.  I couldn't call them just Oreo Cookies since technically they're not actually what everyone considers Oreo cookies to be.  Anyway, I left out the chocolate chips because when Vanilla King is confronted with a chocolate chip cookie, he picks out the chocolate chips before he eats it.  I saved him the trouble by leaving them out in the first place.

If you look at the recipe closely, it's essentially a half recipe of a typical chocolate chip cookie with Oreos added in.  Mine spread more than the ones pictured at The Picky Palate so I'm not sure what that's about.  But they still came out pretty well and the Oreos stayed crisp which I liked since it added some texture to the cookie.  They also passed Vanilla King's taste buds and he had one after dinner before we'd even left the parking lot of the restaurant. Success.

1 stick softened butter
6 Tablespoons sugar
6 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
8 broken pieces Oreo cookies
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, and sugars until well combined. Add egg and vanilla until mixed well.
2. Place flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl, stir to combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients then stir in oreos and chocolate chips until just combined.
3. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden at the edges and the middles no longer look raw or doughy. Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.