Sweet Orange Monkey Bread

I wanted to do some baking with the children at school. They love it when I bring in homemade bread so I decided to make some bread with them. Let's face it children do love sweet stuff so I made this recipe up and it worked really well. The children loved helping to make it and eating the result.

Do you know why Monkey bread is called Monkey bread?

Apparently it's because when baked everyone can dig in and break off a chunk like monkeys.
You learn something new everyday :)

Before

For Sweet Orange Monkey Bread

3 mugs of strong plain flour
Half a mug of milk
One egg
1/3 mug of sugar
2 tablespoons of margarine
One sachet of instant yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
Grated orange rind


For the glaze
2 tablespoons of margarine
Juice of an orange
Sugar

Rub the margarine into the flour. Add the orange rind, salt, sugar and yeast. Mix well. Whisk the egg into the milk and add to the mixture. Form into dough and knead well. Leve to rise in a warm place for an hour or so. Knock back the dough and knead for a few minutes. Put the juice of an orange and the margarine into a microwavable bowl and heat for 20 seconds or until melted but not hot.

Break off tiny bits of dough and make into a ball. Dip into the margarine mixture and then roll in sugar. Pile into a greased baking tin or dish. Leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour and then bake at 180 for 30 minutes

After

Garlic Monkey Bread

I make this when we have a barbecue because everyone can just dig in. It's also good for informal family meals to accompany chilli, or spaghetti bolognese.

Before


After

For the dough you will need:
4 cups of strong plain flour
1 sachet of easyblend yeast
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 cloves of garlic crushed

To coat the dough
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 bunch of parsley chopped finely
6 oz of butter or margarine

To make the dough put the ingredients into a bread maker. Mix on the dough setting. When ready take out. Leave to one side for a few minutes whilst you melt the butter/margarine in a pan along with the garlic and parsley. When melted put to one side to allow to cool a little. You will now need a greased baking tin.

Divide the dough up into lots of little dough balls and roll around in the garlic butter and just place into the tin. Continue with the rest and just pile into the tin. This is a great activity for kids to get involved in. When you have used up all the dough then pour the rest of the garlic butter over the monkey bread. Leave to one side for about 10 mins to rise a little.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes in a preheated oven 180C

For a variation you could sprinkle on some grated cheese and have garlic and cheese monkey bread.

Greentea, oats and raisin bread

Trying to find ways of getting more greentea into everyone. It is so good for you. I thought I would have a go at making this loaf. I first made a very strong cup of green tea using 2 teabags. I left it to cool. I put the following ingredients into the bread maker

3 cups of strong white flour
1 cup of rolled oats
1 tablespoon of butter/margarine
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of marmalade
1 sachet of easyblend yeast

I then added the cooled greentea

Set the breadmaker for a rapid loaf and hey presto a very nice tea bread, good toasted for breakfast.

Tomato Bread

The children at school often get tomatoes for their snack and the vast majority hate them. To overcome this problem and to avoid throwing out loads of tomatoes I now take them home and make bread with them.



4 cups of strong white flour
half a cup of water
10-15 cherry tomatoes chopped
1 tablespoon of margarine or olive oil
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 sachet of easy blend yeast

Put everything into a bread maker and either make into dough and bake as individual buns or use the white loaf setting and make into a loaf. The children love eating this bread and are always eager for more.

Pizza base spicy

4 cups of strong white bread flour
1 tablespoon of hot chilli powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of tumeric
2 tablespoons of natural yogurt
easy blend yeast
1 cup of water
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Put into the bread maker on the dough setting. When ready roll out into a pizza base and put your favourite topping on. Enough to make at least 2 large pizzas depending on how thick you like the dough.

Marmalade and oat bread

3 cups of strong white bread flour

1 cup of rolled oats

1 1/2 tablespoons of butter

1 teaspoon of salt

half a cup of marmalade

1 cup of milk

some grated orange zest (optional)

Put all the ingredients into a bread maker and use the 'quick' setting or the 'normal white bread setting'

Delicious toasted for breakfast