Product Review - Monkey Bread

This is my review of the King Arthur boxed mix for Monkey bread.

If you have not heard of Monkey Bread, it is a delicious creation where cut-up refrigerated dough is rolled in cinnamon sugar, topped with butter and brown sugar, and then baked in a Bundt pan. The recipe is a family favorite, my mom first made this for me when I was in college, and I have been making it ever since. If you follow my blog you know I am always singing the praises of the Pillsbury dough, Pillsbury biscuits are traditionally used to make Monkey Bread and I love the recipe I have as is.

However my hubby got me this boxed mix from Williams-Sonoma knowing how I love Williams-Sonoma cake mixes, and thought it would be fun to make with the girls.

This mix has you make the dough totally from scratch and includes a packet of yeast. I had never used yeast before this, I don't know much about it and frankly I was intimidated by it. To me yeast is for professional bread bakers, and I use Pillsbury or buy bread from a bakery, but I decided to be brave and try it.

Overall this was really labor intensive to make. Don't wake up in the morning and think you are going to bang this out in time for breakfast or even a mid-morning snack. With all the many steps, and the time waiting for the dough to rise, it is hours from start to finish. There are instructions how to make the dough the night before, which I recommended if you do want to eat it in the morning.

For all my worrying, the yeast part was really quite simple, and it was kinda cool to check on my dough and see that it was indeed rising (I did it right!). I actually gave it one more hour past the time indicated on the box, the ambient temperature in my work area may have been a factor, not sure, but I went by size, not time.

The end result bread came out great, cooked well, and tasted delicious. The topping was perfect, I was very pleased (should be after all that work!), and the kids loved it too.

Honestly I would probably not make this again, while the flavor was good, it was not leaps and bounds above the traditional recipe enough to warrant all the added steps and time. For me the whole idea behind using refrigerated dough is that it is quicker and easier, and tastes just as good, so I will probably stick with my good old Pillsbury. But overall it was a success. This mix, given together with a Bundt pan or a cake stand would make a very nice gift.

Recipe Creations?? Where did you go?

I cannot say enough what a fan I am of refrigerated dough, short of renaming this blog the Crescent Roll Recipe Blog. I *heart* refrigerated dough and I use it all the time, namely Pillsbury Crescents. In fact I have often thought that double ovens must exist for the sole purpose of having a separate oven for the Crescents to cook in.

Last year I noticed Pillsbury introduced a new item called Pillsbury Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet. What this is is a seamless flat of dough, the same dough from the Crescent Rolls. It comes in the same tube and looks nearly identical to Crescents. A lot of times recipes will tell you to use the Crescent dough to wrap around something like chicken or meat, and you have to pinch all of the perforations closed by hand to make it one sheet of dough, and then reshape it to your liking. The Recipe Creations sheet eliminated this step by giving you the dough already in a flat rectangle, no pinching. I love this idea! So useful! I used this a ton for chicken dishes, for appetizers, for fruit turnovers.

Now my dilemma is I can no longer find the Recipe Creations at my local grocery store and I am so upset over it! Now I have to go back to pinching the Crescents closed (Horrors!). This item was and IS a great idea. I went on the Pillsbury website and they still exist, at least there. I guess my local grocery stores decided to stop carrying it? I did mention it to my store manager, so hopefully they will pick this item back up. I cannot imagine that there is not a huge demand for it!

Has anyone else seen these and used them? Post your comments and tell me about your favorite way to use Crescent Dough. In the meantime, I will be on the lookout for my Recipe Creations!

Chicken Cordon Bleu in Pastry

This is sort of a Faux Chicken Cordon Bleu, using Pillsbury Crescents. I love refrigerated dough! What is it about it that makes it sooo good? A recipe that includes Pillsbury dough simply can do no wrong in my opinion.

Worth noting: This recipe uses chive & onion cream cheese. In the Tortellini soup I posted previous to this recipe, you use 1/2 a tub of the chive & onion cream cheese. Make this chicken recipe in the same week as the soup, and you can use the same tub. Economies of scale! Love it.

1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent rolls
1/4 cup spreadable chive & onion cream cheese
4 thin slices deli ham
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 4 ounces each)
4 slices Swiss cheese

1) On an ungreased baking sheet, separate dough into four rectangles; seal perforations.




2) Spread 1 tablespoon cream cheese lengthwise down the center of each rectangle.



3) Place ham width wise over dough. Arrange chicken in center of each rectangle. Wrap ham around chicken.




4) At each long end, pinch dough around chicken, forming points (the pastry will look like little boats).


4) Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Top with slice of Swiss cheese; bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted and pastry is golden brown. Careful not to let the bottoms burn!