A New Sort of Monkey Bread

I'm going to share a recent read, The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister, and a recent food creation, with a very loose          connection. Well, maybe connections would be that the ingredients in the Monkey Bread were all essential, and that both the book and the recipe were delicious. I loved them both.  And, I just noticed that this is actually book 1 of a series, so looking forward to reading her next, The Lost art of Mixing.

The novel is about a basically self taught chef and restaurant owner who opens up her premises once a month, on Mondays, the day the restaurant is closed, to a small group cooking school.  Of course, all of the students, in the manner of a Maeve Binchy story, are revealed in their unique characters and situations, and come together, helped by the learning experience and the creating of good food.

From the Publisher's Weekly:

"In this remarkable debut, Bauermeister creates a captivating world where the pleasures and particulars of sophisticated food come to mean much more than simple epicurean indulgence. Respected chef and restaurateur Lillian has spent much of her 30-something years in the kitchen, looking for meaning and satisfaction in evocative, delicious combinations of ingredients. Endeavoring to instill that love and know-how in others, Lillian holds a season of Monday evening cooking classes in her restaurant. The novel takes up the story of each of her students, navigating readers through the personal dramas, memories and musings stirred up as the characters handle, slice, chop, blend, smell and taste. Each student's affecting story--painful transitions, difficult choices--is rendered in vivid prose and woven together with confidence. Delivering memorable story lines and characters while seducing the senses, Bauermeister's tale of food and hope is certain to satisfy. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"

The Monkey Bread was a coming together as well.  That of using sourdough, changing the normally super sweet bread for savory, cutting the recipe (loosely adapted from from this site) in half and using a strange Chinese pot, instead of a bundt pan, then serving it up with a scrumptious black bean soup, which has its own story.  Since I cut it in half, I wanted a smaller pot. I don't the origin of the utensil, though I know it was a Chinese chef who was promoting, and I got it years ago. Do any of you recognize it?  Never used it before, but now we have a new purposing. 

Cheesy, Savory, Sourdough Monkey Bread

Ingredients
Favorite Sourdough Bread (enough for two 9X5 loaves of bread) or Roll Recipe ( remember I cut it in half)
2-3 cups grated Sharp Cheddar, or other favorite cheese
3/4 cups melted butter
dried herbs, like Italian seasoning (optional) (I used Korean chili pepper flakes, and some caraway seeds)

Directions
1. Mix all your bread ingredients together and form into a ball and let rise for 3 hours in an oiled bowl or until doubled in size.

2.Cut the dough ball in half and set aside one half. (unless you are cutting in half)

3. Roll out your dough into a large rectangle.

4. Cover with 1/3 cup butter, sprinkle on herbs or spices if using and cheese. Make sure to go all the way to the edges.

5. Starting at one of the long sides, roll up your dough into a tight log.

6. Cut dough into 1 inch slices (I use a piece of floss. - note: this works great!)

7. Gently brush on 1/6 cup of the butter onto all the pieces. (Your hands will get pretty buttery here…)

8. Lay the pieces into your buttered bundt or angel food pan.

9. Repeat with the other half of the dough

10. Let your dough rise for 3-4 hours or until doubles again.

11. Bake at 375 F for 35-40 minutes. It should be very browned on top.

12. Immediately empty the bread from the pan after baking. One or two rolls might fall off, just add them to the rest.

The rolls fit nicely into my pot, with enough room for the last rising to take place.  And, dental floss was perfect for cutting the rolls into equal segments.  You just slide it under, bring it up, twist and pull tight.  So, there's no squishing.  Note on the black bean soup.  The beans were not softening sufficiently after quite a number of hours, so were turned into soup, via the blender.  Quite delicious with these rolls on the side.

I'll be sharing my goodies over at Weekend Cooking, hosted by Marge the Intrepid, and with Heather for her July Foodies Read Challenge. Be sure to visit both sites for good food ideas and some books as well.