Category

Breakfast

Baking, Bread, Breakfast, Kids, Recipes

Monkey Bread

Can you smell this amazing cinnamon sweet bread? If only there were a scratch n sniff screen.

This yummy treat is Monkey Bread.

I made this for my kids during the school holidays.

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Have you had Monkey Bread before? It is balls of dough smothered in a brown butter sauce and cinnamon sugar then after it has been baked you cover it in a sweet, sticky vanilla glaze. It’s delicious, gooey and oh so good!

You need to prepare the dough for this recipe the day before, and you put it in the fridge. Overnight it rises in the fridge so in the morning you just need to roll the dough into little balls.

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Monkey Bread
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Sweet Bread
Serves: 14
Ingredients
  • DOUGH
  • 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
  • ¼ cup warm water
  • 1¼ cups warm full cream milk
  • ⅓ cup unsalted butter, melted
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • COATING
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter
  • 1¼ cups granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • ⅔ cup light or dark brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • VANILLA GLAZE
  • 1 cup (120g) icing sugar
  • 3 Tablespoons (45ml) heavy cream (or milk for a less creamy texture)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Instructions
  1. Make the dough: In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir it around a bit and let it sit for about 2 minutes. Add the milk, melted butter, sugar, eggs, salt, and 3 cups of flour. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes (using a dough hook if you have a stand mixer or using a hand mixer). By hand add enough remaining flour to form a firm dough. About 5 cups total.
  2. Turn the dough onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Do not over-knead, which will yield a tough, chewy bread. The dough is ready when it is smooth and when you can poke it with a finger and it springs back. Form dough into a smooth ball and place into a large greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. I greased the bowl with cooking spray. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
  3. Make the coating: melt ½ cup of butter in a small bowl. Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon together in another small bowl. Set aside. You will use the rest of the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla later.
  4. Spray a 10-12 cup bundt pan with cooking spray. I used a large baking tin and lined it with baking paper. Set aside. Punch the cold dough down very gently to allow the air bubbles to release. Pull apart pieces and roll into balls, about 1.25 inches in diameter. You will need 40-45 balls total, so be modest with their size. Dip each ball, one by one, in the melted butter and then generously roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat them. You may need more cinnamon-sugar depending how heavy you coat each ball. Arrange them in the bundt pan as you go. Cover the pan and allow dough balls to rise again for about 45 minutes at room temperature.
  5. Preheat oven to 180°C/150°C fan forced. Melt the remaining ¼ cup of butter and whisk in the brown sugar and vanilla until combined. Pour the buttery mixture over the dough balls in the bundt pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. Cover loosely with foil if the top browns too quickly. Cool for 5-10 minutes and invert onto a large serving plate.
  6. Top with the glaze. Simply whisk all of the glaze ingredients together and pour over the bread. You may either cut the bread into generous slices or let everyone pick off the gooey pieces themselves. Monkey bread tastes best served on the same day, but will stay fresh for 3 days if stored covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
Notes
This recipe was adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction
Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

 

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So what do you think of this yummy gooey warm goodness?

My kids were hanging around the kitchen waiting for the Monkey Bread to cool so I could drizzle it with the glaze. You just want to make sure the Monkey Bread has cooled slightly as you don’t want the glaze to melt.

Monkey Bread is a pull apart of sticky bites of goodness. We devoured this warm, and we found it was best eaten on the day. And just a little warning: there might be some licking of sticky fingers.

Mum, can we have some more, please….

Happy baking!

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October 28, 2014
2
Baking, Breakfast, Kids, Recipes

French Toast Bites

I think these French Toast Bites have to be one of my favourite breakfasts at the moment. They are simple to make and just use a few ingredients. I used a loaf of home-made bread that I had baked the day before. I cut it into nice thick slices and then into bite size pieces. You cover them in an egg and milk mix then brown in a frying pan. Once cooked they get covered in a sugar and cinnamon mix. The first two bites didn’t make it to the plate as I had to test them!

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5.0 from 1 reviews
French Toast Bites
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • A loaf of bread ( I used my day old home-made bread. I cut about 4 thick slices then cut them into bite size pieces)
  • 3 large eggs
  • ¼ - ⅓ cup of milk
  • 1-2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, for greasing the pan
  • Cinnamon and sugar mix
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • ½ cup sugar
Instructions
  1. Slice your bread into 1 - 1.5 inch slices. Set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and ¼ cup of milk until combined. The mixture should be of a thick consistency. Pour in a shallow dish or plate, whichever is easiest for you.
  3. On another plate, mix together the sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
  4. Soak the bread slices in the mixture for about 2 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan. Place however many slices of bread that fit the pan and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side. Melt more butter in skillet pan for the next batch, if needed.
  5. Once each French bite is cooked, you can then transfer to the sugar mix and coat until covered. Then place onto a serving plate.
  6. Serve immediately with butter, maple syrup, powdered sugar, and/or fruit.
Notes
This recipe was adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction
Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

The kids had maple syrup and icing sugar on theirs while I added some fruit to mine. After everyone had finished breakfast, there were a few left, so I just left them out on a plate and every time we went by the plate one of us grabbed another one. They were very nice just on their own without any toppings.

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I am going to be making these again soon, and I will take some more photos to show you how easy they are to prepare. I was short of photos for this yummy recipe as the school holidays was full of sleep ins and late breakfasts. The kids were very hungry the day these were made, and they asked “do you have to take photos, we are hungry!”

Happy baking!

What is your favourite breakfast at the moment?

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October 13, 2014
10
Breakfast, Kids, Recipes

Pancakes

My kids love pancakes. If they could, they would have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A while ago when it was Pancake Tuesday, I made pancakes for dinner, and we had all the trimmings. The kids thought that was ace and have since requested when can we have that again!

I am always on the look out for a yummy pancake recipe. I have tried a few and have even tried putting together my own recipe. I know when the pancakes haven’t turned out as the kids will tell me that they weren’t that good, or they were better than the last pancakes I made. They are very good at telling me yay or nay. I have my own taste testers!

I came upon this recipe while looking on Pinterest and decided to give this one a go. Well, the pancakes turned out great. They were fluffy and soft. They rose quite well and tasted really good. We like our pancakes fluffy and to have a bit of height. The kids said that these were the best pancakes that I have made so far.

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4.0 from 1 reviews
Pancakes
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2¼ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups milk
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
  1. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a large bowl and mix well to combine.
  2. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and milk together with a whisk. Pour this into the dry ingredients and mix until combined but do not overmix.
  3. Then slowly pour in the melted butter and gently mix in.
  4. The batter should still have lumps.
  5. Heat a pan over medium-low heat and add ⅓ cup batter. Cook pancake 2-3 minutes on first side, until edges look slightly dry and bubbles begin to form on top. Flip the pancake and cook another 1-2 minutes.
  6. Serve with maple syrup, some fresh fruit or whatever you fancy!
Notes
This recipe was adapted from Love Grows Wild
Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

pancakes2copypancakes3copypancakescopyEnjoy!

Do you have a favourite pancake recipe that you use? 

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October 9, 2014
11
Breakfast, Product reviews

Breakfast With Uncle Tobys

*This is a Nuffnang product talk for Uncle Tobys Quick Sachet Oats (all opinions and text are my own)uncletobysFrom Monday to Friday every morning is chaotic in our house. The kids wake up at 6.00am, and that’s when our day starts. There is packing lunch boxes, making everyone’s breakfast, getting dressed, brushing teeth and combing hair. Sometimes everything runs smoothly, and I even get to sit down and eat breakfast with them. But there are days when it seems like the clock is in fast forward mode, and it’s all go go go! When those days come about, I wish we had a quick and easy breakfast that the kids could make themselves.uncletobys1I was given some Uncle Tobys Oats Quick Sachets to try and I am so glad we gave them a go. They are a convenient and tasty oats options, perfect for busy individuals and families. The kids got their bowls and spoons out. They grabbed a sachet of quick oats, cut the top off and poured the oats into a bowl. They poured some milk in, gave it a stir and popped them in the microwave on high for 90 seconds. Once done, the kids gave them another mix and allowed to cool before digging in. We all found them easy to prepare and mess free. uncletobys2uncletobys3The kids really loved them and wanted to go back for a second bowl. They have a great fruity taste and have no artificial colours or flavours. Great for our chaotic mornings!

Uncle Tobys also asked us to explore what our idea of a dream/ideal morning would be. We decided to have a little fun and make a couple of videos.

This is what our dream morning would look like when having breakfast:

Dream morning from Simone on Vimeo.

This is our what our morning really looks like while having breakfast:

Chaotic morning from Simone on Vimeo.

You can find out more information about Uncle Tobys Quick Oats here.

Thank you Uncle Tobys for making our mornings so much easier.

What are your school mornings like? Do you have a dream/ideal morning?

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August 7, 2014
2
Baking, Breakfast, garden, Going for a drive, Recipes, Relax, Sewing

A Morning Coffee With Me…

Hi there and how are you today. If you have come over from Pips place, welcome! I’m Simone, come into my lounge and lets find a spot to sit down on the couch. I can put the kettle on or would you like a coffee. I love using my coffee machine, a latte or cappuccino?

It seems so long ago now but back in May I enrolled in a fantastic blogging course called Blog with Pip. I met some lovely new friends and even learnt some new things about blogging too. I might even go back and enrol for the July group.

Now although the course has finished, our last thing to do is to share our 5 things that we are loving right now and join in with Pip over at meet me at mikes. She is hosting A Cuppa Tea with Me so her May students can share some things about themselves. Unfortunately I don’t drink tea as I love coffee too much. The only time I have drunk tea is when I had morning sickness with all five pregnancies and last check, I am not pregnant! But I might put the kettle on and grab a tea bag if I feel the sniffles coming along. A nice warm cuppa will fix that.

So, with our nice warm drinks and a special morning treat here are my five things I am loving right now…

1. My cup of coffee. I always have one in the morning at around 9.30 am. It’s my routine and I love it. And if I have done some baking for the kids, I will indulge in a treat for testing purposes of course! Baked good seen here were Jam rolls made with small bread rolls and baked in the oven. I made these for the kids breakfast this morning. School holidays have started so I get to try out some new breakfast recipes. These were very nice and the kids liked them, tick!cupcoffee 2. Venturing out and going for a walk with my hubby. Exploring new parks and places. Enjoying some ‘we’ time.

hubbytree copy3.  I am finally using my overlocker my hubby bought me two years ago for my birthday. I joined in The Hottie Project which is hosted by Lisa from Big Little. I have missed being able to sew. But not anymore, there will be more sewing projects to come!hottieproject14c4. Baking in my kitchen. Just making, baking and making! I love trying new recipes and the best bit is I have lots of helpers to test them for me. I made this for breakfast last Saturday. It is a german style oven pancake. Very yummy, hubby and I had two servings! We had a good reason, we needed that extra serve so we could finish off our coffee!cupcoffee5. Using my Nikon D3200 dslr camera. Hubby bought this for me for christmas. I love photography. I am learning all the time how to use my camera and enjoy jumping into the car and finding places we can visit to take photos. This photo was taken on my birthday weekend getaway. Hubby and I went to Daylesford for a weekend and found this church between towns. It was a beautiful church just sitting there in the open between fields of grass and fences.daylesfordtripWell, what a lovely chat we have had! I am glad that you dropped by. Now don’t leave it too long between visits. I would love to put that kettle back on. There might just be a freshly baked treat sitting on the bench cooling.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

See you next time,

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P.S. Normally I do a post about what is happening in my garden or parks that I have visited. Anyone can join in and you share your garden, someone else’s or a park that you have been to. All you do is link your blog via the linky at the bottom of my post. But since we are having a tea party today I have postponed it. I don’t want to miss out on all the fun. I love having a chat and meeting new friends. There might even be some of you that would like to join in next time. The more the merrier, I say!!

 

 

June 27, 2014
18
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