A Few Good Recipes: Monkey Bread & Strawberry Butter

While preparing my menu for Thanksgiving a friend of mine recommended I make the famous Neiman Marcus Monkey Bread and Strawberry Butter to accompany it. It was my first time baking bread and it was something I wasn't too familiar or comfortable with but I took the plunge and it turned out to be delicious!

Monkey Bread Ingredients:
1 TBSP + 1 TSP Active Dry Yeast
1 Cup Warm Milk
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 TSP Salt
1 Cup Melted Butter
3 1/4 Cups Sifted Flour


Preheat oven to 400. Place the milk in a heavy bottom pan on low heat. Stir until bubbles appear around the edges - do not boil and then removed from heat. Pour milk in another bowl and add yeast and a pinch of sugar. When yeast has dissolved stir in the rest of the sugar, salt and butter. Add flour and beat well. Cover and allow dough to rise to almost double, this will take about an hour. 


Once the dough has risen, punch down the dough and turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin roll out to a thickness of 1/2 inch. With a pizza cutter cut the dough into 2-inch squares. Gather up four or five squares of the dough and press them together with your fingers (otherwise the finished roll will not hold together). Place the remaining 1/2 cup of the melted butter in a shallow bowl and dip the rolls into the butter (reserve the remaining butter). Transfer the dough to a buttered medium-size muffing pan, buttered side down, and let it rise in a warm place for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until doubled in volume. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush again with the remaining melted butter.


Strawberry Butter Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Butter
1/3 Cup Strawberry Preserves


Beat/whip butter until nice and fluffy. Add the preserves & stir/beat until well combined. Keep refrigerated, this lasts for 2-3 days. Wonderful on anything!