Granini's Monkey Bread Failure
Soooooooo....
I learned a lot about making Monkey Bread for the first time.
1. Do not use my homemade biscuit dough as a base for the monkey bread. Yes, my biscuits are amazing. But for monkey bread? I think I would prefer my dinner roll recipe as the base. (Here's why: My biscuit dough is flakey and crisp on the outside and soft and delicious on the inside normally, but in the failed monkey dough disaster experiment, they were mushy and mealy. Bleh.)
2. I baked my monkey bread per the directions off of several pinterest 'no fail' recipes, and baked them for 30 minutes. They were SOOOO underbaked. I baked them for another 10 minutes, and thought they looked okay. However, they were so not okay. They truly needed another 10 minutes. The insides were underbaked, but not raw. And the caramel sauce had not had a chance to quite set up like it should have.
And why, you ask, did I veer from the recipe that required biscuits in a can? Perhaps my monkey bread would have turned out had I done so. But I veered from the recipe because I never ever ever eat biscuits from a can. Nor do I eat bisquick biscuits. Which is a bit of an inside joke between my husband and I.
The idea of biscuits from a can seems unappetizing to me. I'm sure that if you're brought up with biscuits in a can they can be quite delicious. I have no problem whatsoever with packaged goods. I'm a glutton. I eat pop tarts and peanut butter captain crunch and a whole long list of other foods that are bad for me and are filled with preservatives and so forth. I am not a food snob. I use Lipton onion soup mix, Lawry's taco seasoning, and cream of mushroom soup on a regular basis. I'm also an enormous fan of Tostito's cheese dip -- a quicker and easier way to eat my childhood favorite Velveeta cheese dip with Rotel tomatoes and chilis, green onions, and cilantro.
But not once have I ever found the appeal of biscuits in a can. Probably because making biscuits from scratch is a relatively easy feat. Very difficult (for me) to screw up. Tasty and delicious. Flaky, buttery, soft, and oh so tasty. Sometimes when I eat processed food, all I can taste is the weird processed food bits. I can't taste the actual FOOD part. It's almost like eating something that's been served in a bowl that still has soapy water in it. You can taste the soapy water and can't really taste the actual food. When you're brought up with those tastes, they taste fine to you. You've acquired a taste for those extra flavors. But when you've been brought up on homemade biscuits or homemade pie dough it's a challenge to eat something out of a box. The difference between chocolate pudding out of a box and chocolate pudding from scratch is two completely different experiences. So yes, perhaps I am a selective food snob. Some foods just taste better to me when they're made from scratch. Others, I've grown accustomed to and like just fine. So eat the food that tastes good to you. And I'll do my best to help come up with recipes that are easy to follow, use only a handful of packaged ingredients (if any at all), and taste pretty terrific.
3. In the future, note to self, do NOT bake monkey bread on a top rack with cheesy au gratin potatoes directly below them.
The monkey bread WILL drip over and down.
And into your cheesy au gratin potatoes.
And all over the bottom of the oven.
UGH.
I was able to scoop the syrupy caramel sauce from the top of the potatoes and dump it out into the sink. I rearranged the items in the oven and placed them both on the top rack. The potatoes ended up turning out just fine. Whew. And the rest of the Easter brunch turned out just fine. But man, what a disappointment.
I don't often fail miserably when it comes to baking when I follow recipes. My greatest mishaps have always been when I try to create something on my own. But man alive, this was one truly disappointing disaster.
Tune in next week when I try them again. Using my Parker House dinner roll recipe.
If they don't turn out, I'll just go back to making my cinnamon rolls.
They're amazing.
* * * * *
Soooooooo....
I learned a lot about making Monkey Bread for the first time.
1. Do not use my homemade biscuit dough as a base for the monkey bread. Yes, my biscuits are amazing. But for monkey bread? I think I would prefer my dinner roll recipe as the base. (Here's why: My biscuit dough is flakey and crisp on the outside and soft and delicious on the inside normally, but in the failed monkey dough disaster experiment, they were mushy and mealy. Bleh.)
2. I baked my monkey bread per the directions off of several pinterest 'no fail' recipes, and baked them for 30 minutes. They were SOOOO underbaked. I baked them for another 10 minutes, and thought they looked okay. However, they were so not okay. They truly needed another 10 minutes. The insides were underbaked, but not raw. And the caramel sauce had not had a chance to quite set up like it should have.
And why, you ask, did I veer from the recipe that required biscuits in a can? Perhaps my monkey bread would have turned out had I done so. But I veered from the recipe because I never ever ever eat biscuits from a can. Nor do I eat bisquick biscuits. Which is a bit of an inside joke between my husband and I.
The idea of biscuits from a can seems unappetizing to me. I'm sure that if you're brought up with biscuits in a can they can be quite delicious. I have no problem whatsoever with packaged goods. I'm a glutton. I eat pop tarts and peanut butter captain crunch and a whole long list of other foods that are bad for me and are filled with preservatives and so forth. I am not a food snob. I use Lipton onion soup mix, Lawry's taco seasoning, and cream of mushroom soup on a regular basis. I'm also an enormous fan of Tostito's cheese dip -- a quicker and easier way to eat my childhood favorite Velveeta cheese dip with Rotel tomatoes and chilis, green onions, and cilantro.
But not once have I ever found the appeal of biscuits in a can. Probably because making biscuits from scratch is a relatively easy feat. Very difficult (for me) to screw up. Tasty and delicious. Flaky, buttery, soft, and oh so tasty. Sometimes when I eat processed food, all I can taste is the weird processed food bits. I can't taste the actual FOOD part. It's almost like eating something that's been served in a bowl that still has soapy water in it. You can taste the soapy water and can't really taste the actual food. When you're brought up with those tastes, they taste fine to you. You've acquired a taste for those extra flavors. But when you've been brought up on homemade biscuits or homemade pie dough it's a challenge to eat something out of a box. The difference between chocolate pudding out of a box and chocolate pudding from scratch is two completely different experiences. So yes, perhaps I am a selective food snob. Some foods just taste better to me when they're made from scratch. Others, I've grown accustomed to and like just fine. So eat the food that tastes good to you. And I'll do my best to help come up with recipes that are easy to follow, use only a handful of packaged ingredients (if any at all), and taste pretty terrific.
3. In the future, note to self, do NOT bake monkey bread on a top rack with cheesy au gratin potatoes directly below them.
The monkey bread WILL drip over and down.
And into your cheesy au gratin potatoes.
And all over the bottom of the oven.
UGH.
I was able to scoop the syrupy caramel sauce from the top of the potatoes and dump it out into the sink. I rearranged the items in the oven and placed them both on the top rack. The potatoes ended up turning out just fine. Whew. And the rest of the Easter brunch turned out just fine. But man, what a disappointment.
I don't often fail miserably when it comes to baking when I follow recipes. My greatest mishaps have always been when I try to create something on my own. But man alive, this was one truly disappointing disaster.
Tune in next week when I try them again. Using my Parker House dinner roll recipe.
If they don't turn out, I'll just go back to making my cinnamon rolls.
They're amazing.
* * * * *
I not only bake and cook, I write murder mysteries too!
Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions
Diamonds for Diamond
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed
(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)
Diamonds for Diamond
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed
(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)
* * * * *
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