Monkeying Around

I love baking. The ingredients, the process, the gadgets, and definitely the outcome. But now I am in the midst of a gut renovation of my kitchen. Which is wonderful, don't get me wrong. I've been living with a highly dysfunctional, unattractive kitchen for eight years. Think cow and goat wallpaper and wood paneling on the ceiling. Seriously. Plus a big honking stove that looked (and acted) like something Laura Ingalls Wilder would have cooked on. Our new space will be airy, bright, open to the dining room, and most important to me, extremely functional. I cannot wait, but for the next few months, baking is off limits. Our temporary cooking space in the living room includes a microwave, toaster oven, and double electric burner, but no oven.

For my last baking act in the old kitchen, I chose (or my kids chose) monkey bread. It's a favorite in our house, and I confess that for a while we were making monkey bread every weekend. What is Monkey Bread, you ask? It's a yeast bread confection baked in a bundt pan that one of the best examples of accessible home baking. It's a do-ahead recipe that uses few ingredients and kids can help. It's also a crowd pleaser, and the results are so marvelous it usually doesn't have time to cool before it's gone. 

This recipe borrows heavily from Smitten Kitchen, which is one of my favorite food blogs. But I changed quite a bit. I nixed the cream cheese glaze, which I did think was overkill in the sweetness department. I altered the recipe to set is up the night before, so when you wake up in the morning you can just preheat the oven and stick it in. And while Smitten Kitchen claims this serves 8+ eaters, I beg to differ. The four of us at my house, for better or worse, can easily make one of these disappear.

Monkey Bread

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

serves 4-6

2 T. + 6 T. butter, divided

1 c. milk

1/3 c. water

1/4 c. sugar

2 1/4 t. instant yeast

3 1/2 to 4 c. all-purpose flour, plus more if needed

2 t. salt

1 1/4 c. packed brown sugar

2 1/2 t. cinnamon

Place 2 T. butter, milk, and water in a heat proof measuring cup. Heat in microwave in 30 second intervals until the mixture feels lukewarm (or gently warm in a pan on the stove). Add sugar and yeast and mix. Let sit for a few minutes. 

Mix 3 1/2 cups flour and salt together in the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Turn on the mixer and slowly add the milk mixture. As the dough comes together, if it sticks to the bowl, turn off the machine and add additional flour, 1/4 cup at a time. Once the dough comes together enough so it isn't sticking to the sides of the bowl, stop adding flour. Mix on medium high until the dough is smooth, around 7 minutes (be careful to stay near your mixer as it works-it tends to jump around the counter when kneading). You can also knead the dough by hand if you need a good arm workout.

Turn the dough onto a clean lightly floured surface to check. It should form a smooth ball and spring back to the touch. If not, continue kneading by hand until it's springy and smooth. Spray the mixer bowl with cooking spray, and place the dough back in it. Cover and let rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, about one hour.

Coat a bundt pan with cooking spray. Melt the remaining 6 T. butter and place in a bowl. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in another bowl.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface. (Kudos to Smitten Kitchen's technique here.) Gently roll the dough into an 8-inch square. Using a bench scraper, divide the dough into about 64 pieces (8 x 8). Start cutting in the middle and work out. If the pieces aren't even, don't worry. Just combine a few of the smaller pieces as you work. 

Line up an assembly line with the butter, sugar, and bundt pan. Roll each dough piece on the counter to form a ball, then dunk it in the butter, then roll it in the sugar, then drop it in the pan. Repeat until all the dough is used up (this is where kid hands come in handy). Sprinkle any remaining sugar on the top. Cover the pan and place in the fridge overnight. (You could also let it rise immediately for another 30 minutes, the proceed with baking).

Remove pan from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove cover and bake until the top is browned and the sides are bubbling, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Take a deep breath and turn the bread out onto a platter. Try to let it cool slightly, or just dig in! 

Rarebit, Not Rabbit

Yes, I've been to cooking school. Yes, I think about food a lot. But still, on some weeks, I manage to run into the "it's 6 o'clock and I don't know what's for dinner" sand trap. The dinner blues are simply a condition of modern family life. I have many strategies to try to avoid that situation. I plan meals ahead of time, cook on the weekends, and start dishes in the morning. But sometimes, I run out of time or ingredients or both, and suddenly dinner time is staring me down and I have nowhere to hide.

So what to do? Sometimes, takeout. But too much takeout costs, both in terms of dollars and health. I'm not saying we don't do it, I'm only saying I like to use takeout as a last resort. If I can, I pull out an idea from a very small but valuable cache of recipes: the 10-minute meal that uses a few common ingredients. And one of these gems is Welsh rarebit.

What is a rarebit? And why is it sometimes called a rabbit when no rabbit is consumed? Is it really Welsh? Welsh Rarebit a classic British Isles dish with a long history. And even though there are Scottish Rabbits and maybe even Irish Rabbits, the dish comes down to something pretty simple: cheese sauce on toast. There are infinite variations, but cheese and toast must be involved. And that's part of why this dish makes it into our rotation regularly. We are a house that always has cheese and always has bread.

I hesitate to even write about a concept so simple as cheese and toast. It's not like I'm whipping up a roasted veggie lasagna with homemade pasta. But even cheese on toast has you coming out ahead of takeout in terms of both cost and nutrition. In any case, my kids prefer Welsh rarebit to that famed other cheese and bread combos, pizza. The mustard and Worcestershire sauce in the rarebit elevate the flavor, and it's comforting on cold days (which we are still experiencing here in the Northeast).

Welsh rarebit is also an excellent vehicle to move vegetables and leftovers out of the fridge and into the bellys. We've had it with sausage and apples, squash, potatoes, bacon, eggs, steak, and in the most recent incarnation pictured above, roasted cauliflower and green beans. I know I'm not alone in this, but we as a family could stand to eat more vegetables, and if a cheddar sauce helps that process along, I'm all for it.

This recipe is pretty much ripped off straight from my mother, as are so many of my dishes. The traditional version is made with beer, but I make mine with lowfat milk. In terms of process, there is really no way to mess this up. Everyone in my house, including my kids, has their own way of making the sauce, and it always comes out delicious.

Welsh Rarebit
from Carole Brown
Serves 4-6

1 c. cold milk
1 t. dry mustard
1 t. Worcestershire sauce
4 t. cornstarch
pinch of salt
2 c. grated cheddar cheese, packed (about 1/2 lb)
4-8 pieces of bread, preferably whole wheat or sourdough

Optional: cubes of sausage, bacon, or steak; a poached or fried egg; cooked broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, squash, potatoes or apples; carmelized onions.

Put milk in a small saucepan. Add the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cornstarch, and a pinch of salt. Whisk until combined. Heat mixture until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes. Add cheese and continue to whisk until cheese is melted, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Continue to stir every few minutes as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Heat or cook any optional toppings. Toast bread to desired toastiness.

Place bread on a plate, add any optional toppings. Ladle sauce over toast and toppings. Eat immediately.

Chocolate Sablés for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day, more than any other holiday, is considered sacred in my house. Why? Because my house is the temple of chocolate, and its inhabitants are the most devout of followers. Chocolate is always, I mean always, the dessert of choice. Chocolate mousse, chocolate tarts, chocolate truffles, chocolate malts, chocolate fondue. Need I go on? Every so often, I throw up my hands and make a fruit-based dessert, but I usually get the business from my family when I do.

Sometimes I think there's no point in looking for a new chocolate cookie. I already have the best salted chocolate cookies, chocolate oat harvest bars, and brownies in my repetoire. But a recipe for chocolate sablés caught my eye as I was leafing through The Essential New York Times Cookbook.

A sablé is a butter cookie, and come in many flavors, sweet or savory. "Sablé" means sand in French, which alludes to the desired texture. In the great American cookie consistency debate--chewy vs. crunchy--this cookie is....neither. Instead a sablé is light but not brittle, soft but not squishy. The dough isn't too far off from a pastry crust, with a large amount of butter and little liquid.

I fiddled with the New York Times recipe (mostly because I just can't help myself). I cut the sugar and added an egg, which may be cheating, but found the dough came together so much more quickly with just one egg to bind it together. I also could not resist sprinkling a bit of sea salt on the cookie before baking. It may be a fad to sprinkle salt on desserts, but it's a fad I wholeheartedly support.

And while you can roll this dough into a log and slice it into rounds, I like rolling it out flat and using cookies cutters, because then you can pick your shape (even though the ones below are, in fact, round, they have fluted edging). This method does mean you must re-roll some of the dough, or waste some dough. And while many frown upon re-rolling such delicate dough, I'm going to admit I've never been able to tell the difference between cookies rolled once or twice.

This recipe makes a lot of cookies, and you can hold the dough in the fridge for several days, making it ideal party fare. Which is exactly how I used it recently to rave reviews.

Before I get to the recipe, you might wonder what are the typed words underneath the plate of cookies? Well, it may just be the best gift ever. A friend secretly worked with my mother to obtain some of my grandparents' original recipe cards, which she then photographed and transferred to tea towels. Isn't that cool?

Chocolate Sablés

adapted from The Essential New York Times Cookbook

1 1/4 c. flour

1/3 c. cocoa

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. kosher salt

11 T. unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into large chunks

2/3 c. packed dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 t. vanilla extract

5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, grated (or finely chopped)

sea salt for sprinkling

Sift flour, cocoa and baking soda together into a bowl. Add salt and stir.

Put butter in a stand mixer bowl. Using the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Scrape down if needed. Add sugar and beat for another minute. Add egg and vanilla and beat until just incorporated. 

Turn off the mixer and add the dry ingredients. Beat on low speed until just incorporated. Turn off again, add the chocolate, and mix in. 

Divide the dough into four pieces. Roll each piece between two sheets of wax paper until 1/2 inch thick. Place sheets into the refrigerator for 1 hour, up to to 4 days.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Take the rolled dough out one sheet at a time. Peel away the top layer of wax paper and discard. Using cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Place on parchment paper on a baking tray, leaving 1 inch of space between each cookie. Sprinkle a few pieces of sea salt in the middle of each cookie.

If there is dough left over, you can gather together, re-roll and cut more cookies. 

Bake for 11-12 minutes. They may seem soft but they are done. Let them cool on the parchment on a rack. 

Store in a container at room temperature for up to 3 days.