Cheese Herb Monkey Bread or Pull Apart Bread

This month I suggested to the group Kneading Bakers that we bake savory or sweet pull apart bread. Pull apart or monkey bread is made with individual size biscuits. These biscuits are shaped separately, placed next to each other in a bowl or a loaf pan and baked.

I thought the cheese and herb biscuits in a bowl looked adorable and wanted to try them. I used sharp cheddar cheese with dried parsley, oregano and thyme. The flavors went very well together.

You will need
For the dough
3 cups bread flour
1/4 oz. instant yeast
1 cup milk
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese

For the dip
2-3 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. parsley
2 tbsp. thyme
2 tbsp. oregano

To make the dough
Melt the butter. Warm the milk and beat it with the butter. Sift a cup of flour and yeast into the milk mixture. Let the sponge sit for 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl shred the cheddar cheese and mix it with the remaining flour.

Add it to the sponge and mix together to form a dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a well oiled bowl, cover and allow to rise for at least an hour until double in volume. Meanwhile grease a bowl with butter and keep aside.

Transfer the risen dough on to a floured surface and roll it out in to a large rectangle. Using a sharp knife or pastry blender cut it into 2x2 inch squares.

Roll each square into a ball. Flour the working surface and using your palm roll the ball around on the surface to smooth it out. Repeat for each of the squares.

Melt the butter for the dip and mix in the parsley, thyme and oregano.

Pick up one of the balls of dough by the seam underside and roll it in the butter. Place it smooth side up in the greased bowl. Repeat for all the balls of dough. Cover and let it rise for about 30-40 minutes.

Towards the end of the rising period preheat the oven to 375 F. Bake the bread for 30-40 minutes. Check after 15 minutes and if the top is browning too fast tent it with aluminium foil. Continue to bake until the side and bottom are browned.

Serve hot.

Zucchini, Tomato, Asiago Cheese Scones

I made these scones for our monthly baking group Kneading Bakers. It was Megan's turn to suggest a recipe and Megan picked scones for the month of March. She asked us to bake either sweet or savory scones.

Her sweet and savory versions had asiago cheese. I chose the savory one. Today it was cold and raining so served the scones with a large pot of soup. They were a hit and were all gone by the end of the meal.

You will need
1 large egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup whole wheat bread (I used chapati flour)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 cup butter
1 cup zucchini, shredded
2/3 cup Asiago cheese, shredded
2/3 cup sun dried tomatoes, shredded (I used the packet from Trader Joe's)
1 tbsp. thyme

Preheat oven to 375 F. Oil a baking sheet and keep aside.
Using a paper towel squeeze out the juice from the shredded zucchini. Cut the sun dried tomatoes into small pieces.

Whisk together the buttermilk and eggs.

Sift the flours, the salt and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and cut it into the flour to get a crumbly texture.

To the flour add the vegetables, cheese and thyme.

Mix in the wet ingredients to form a dough. Transfer the contents to a floured working surface. Fold the dough in half and press down. Rotate it by 90 degrees and fold in half again. Repeat two more times. Transfer the dough to the greased baking sheet and press down to form a large circle of less than an inch in thickness. Cut it into wedges using a pizza cutter. I got 8 wedges. Leave the wedges in the circle.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. There should be some oven rise. Rotate the sheet and bake for another 5 minutes.

Pull the wedges apart and serve hot.

Swedish Coffee Bread

17 years ago I met a group of fabulous gals online. Last month we decided to bake together once a month. Kneading Bakers emerged out of this thought. Every month we plan to bake the same dish. Our very first venture is Swedish Coffee Bread.

I had a lot of fun shaping this bread. I had never used a kitchen scissors on dough before. If I were to make this again I would probably go deeper with the cuts to have a very pronounced end result. But I am happy with this bread. I learnt a lot.

The dough was very sticky and my palm and fingers hurt kneading it. But the resultant bread as so soft it was a pleasure to munch on.

The dough is not very sweet, just the way I like it but the bread is super soft. This will be my stand by sweet bread dough recipe for the further.

For the dough
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. cardamom powdered
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk, lukewarm
1/4 cup water, warm
1/2 oz. Fleischmann instant yeast (2 packets)
2 1/2 cup bread flour
1 cup all purpose flour

For the filling
2 tbsp. melted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

3 tbsp. milk

In a large mixing bowl whisk together the butter, sugar, egg, cardamom and salt. Warm the milk and add it to the bowl.

Warm the water and dissolve the yeast in it. Whisk it into the contents of the bowl. Now add 2 cups of the flour and start forming a dough.

Add more dough as needed. The dough will be sticky. Continue to knead and add more flour as needed. I needed all 3 1/2 cups before the dough came together. Transfer the dough to a clean greased bowl.

Turn the dough around to coat with oil and keep it aside covered for an hour or two until it doubles in size.

Grease a baking sheet and keep aside. Mix all the ingredients for the filling and keep aside. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and roll into a large rectangle about 15 x 9.

Spread the filling on the rolled out dough up to a forth of an inch from the edges. In winter you may have to keep the filling warm to prevent the butter from solidifying. You could put it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds if the butter does solidify and you are unable to spread the filling.

Starting from one of the short ends start rolling the dough.

Roll all the way to the end to form a smooth long roll. If the thickness of the roll is uneven, use your fingers to even it out the best you can.

Seal the edges by pinching them together, like this.

Transfer it to the greased baking sheet with the edge on the bottom. Form into a ring and seal the two ends together.

Using a kitchen scissors cut into the ring about 2/3 of the way in. Do not be afraid to go deeper than what I have here. Just make sure you do not cut all the way to the end.

Go all around the circle making cuts every inch.

Now pick up one of the cut pieces and turn it upwards. 

Repeat all the way around going clockwise. When done cover with a greased sheet of plastic and allow to sit for about 45 minutes. The dough will rise again.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375 F. Warm 3 tbsp. of milk in a bowl and wash the surface of the bread with the milk using a pastry brush. You could use egg yolk wash but I do not like the egg smell so I use milk. Bake the bread for about 15-20 minutes.

Allow it to rest for 5 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!