Savory Monkey Bread

SAVORY MONKEY BREAD

My sister has been asking when I'm going to get this posted. I made it for her before her marathon a few weeks ago. Her and her boyfriend were up in my town visiting for the weekend, while she ran a marathon. Yeah, she's one of those crazy people. (I don't even think I could run around my block!)

While she was here, I made a good carb-filled meal for her prep. I love my carbs. I never understood those carb-free diets. How could you forgo bread and pasta?!?! I found this recipe on Pete Bakes! a wonderful food blog with creative dishes. Go check it out!

Very simply done:

• flour
• sugar
• milk
• yeast
• egg
• onion
• salt
• cheese
• fresh parsley (which was growing crazily in my yard)
  

Mix together the yeast and water, and make your bread dough. I can't believe I ever put the effort into making dough by hand, now that I have my mixer.

Add some cheese (about half) onion (I used dried, you can mince up a fresh one) and parsley.

Mix it all together good. I ended up having to take it out and need it for a while, to make sure everything got distributed nicely throughout the bread.

Let it rise for a while, until double in size (note: mine didn't rise very much, so I just cooked it as it was, and it was great)

now mix together the rest of your cheese, melted butter, and some more parsley and onions

tear the bread off into balls, roll it in the cheese mixture (which actually doesn't roll very well, but just cover each ball with some of the mixture). Let it rise again for a while.

and bake! Turn it out onto a plate and let everyone dig it. It's a wonderful appetizer for a pasta meal. And a good carb-loading dish for those athletes!

Savory Monkey Bread (adapted from Pete Bakes!)

2 Tbsp warm water
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 Tbsp plus 4 Tbsp butter, melted (keep them separate)
3 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
3 Tbsp onion, chopped (I used dried, but fresh would work)
2 cups grated white cheese (I used a 4 cheese blend)

mix yeast, sugar, and warm water in a small mixing bowl. set aside for ten minutes to allow yeast to proof. Mix flour and salt in large mixing bowl. While mixing, either with your mixer or by hand, slowly add the proofed yeast mixture to the dry ingredients, followed by the milk, egg, and 1 Tbsp melted butter. add 1 Tbsp of the parsley, 1 Tbsp of the onion and 1 cup of the cheese. mix on medium speed just until the dough releases from the side of the bowl, about 6-to-8 minutes. knead dough together lightly with your hands. transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm place. allow dough to rise for 25-30 minutes. after 30 minutes, punch dough down and roll into balls, about 1 inch in diameter. mix 4 Tbsp of the melted butter with the remaining parsley, onion and cheese, roll balls in the mixture, and arrange in a lightly greased loaf pan. allow the loaf to rise once more in a warm spot for 30 minutes. Brush with melted butter. Bake in a 375F oven for 35 minutes, brushing twice throughout the baking with any remaining melted butter. serve monkey bread hot out of the oven.

THere are a lot of directions you can go with this bread, you can use an assortment of different herbs and spices to make any flavor you like. You could add bits of bacon to it for a breakfast bread.