Monkey Bread vs. Big Green Egg "Mini"   

Some of you readers may remember , ifin you read my previous 2 "mini matchups" … (chicken meets mini, lobster meets mini) that wifey poo (Dee Dee) took a couple of day trip to the Sunny South Jersey Seashore which left me idle time, at our house to play with a new / virgin mini. For the past 2 days I have been having a ball with this little bugger (previous 2 matchups) so today I have decided that since I  had 2 really good "main courses" it was time for DESERT.

So we're doing Monkey Bread kids. Yes, that soft, puffy, doughy, pastry swimming in gooey sugar/spice/nut sauce.

I have tried all kinds of Monkey bread recipes and have finally decided on this one. Of course, baking on the Mini will be a challenge but I plan to conquer it!

Basic Recipe.

Get a couple of "tubes" of Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits (they come in a 4 pack go just get the whole thing, you're gonna want to make them all anyway in the next few days once you taste them).

1 tbs cinnamon (ground)

½ cup turbinado sugar or granulated suger

½ cup crushed nuts (I use pecans) 

½ cup dark brown sugar (or light brown sugar just as long as its more sugar)

2 sticks butter I use SALTED (come on..you're not makin health food)

1 aluminum baking pan like you would use for banana bread.

EQUIPMENT USED :

BIG GREEN EGG MINI
Maverick ET-73 Dual Probe, Wireless remote thermometer

Humphrey Charcoal

One used fire brick

Aluminum baking pan like the ones you use to make Pumpkin/Banana Bread

Big Green Egg FS24 Fire Starters

OK… now let's talk about that Big Green Egg Mini ….

We want 350 to 375 degrees, indirect (always a problem on a Mini) , for around 30 minutes or so.

To set up the mini for indirect for the whole chicken, you may remember, I took out the fire ring, made a "lower" fire ring facsimile out of crushed aluminum foil and then custom made a drippan/plate setter substitute by massaging an aluminum pan.

The Monkey bread will pose different problems.   After searching my house, garage, music store, barbecue store, car, van, other car, wife's car, basement, I finally found, laying in my back yard, a couple of fire bricks …. Hmm looks like the perfect size to make a "baffle/platesetter" for a mini. I removed the fire ring and inserted the fire brick …perfect !!!  I'll put the grate on top of that to create an "air space" and put the baking pan on top of that and it should work …. We shall see .

So back inside the kitchen time to assemble the Monkey Bread.

Melt 2 of the butter sticks in a bowl.

Mix together the dry ingredients in another bowl.

Open 2 tubes of buttermilk biscuits.

Take a little butter and brush into the aluminum pan for non-stick purposes

Now the original recipes says to "cut each biscuit into 4 pieces and roll into little balls" …but I've gotten way too lazy for that so I just take a biscuit, tear it in half and make 2 balls of dough.

Dredge each dough ball into the butter then into the nuts/cinnamon/sugar/brownsugar mixture.

Then place each ball carefully into the aluminum baking pan. (I toss them in randomly, some of you may want to arrange them in neat rows)

When you have the pan ½ way filled up ….YOU ARE DONE – STOP!   You REALLY only usually want 1/3 of the way but since this is such a small pan .. go to 1/3. I will tell you how to make it work with 1/3 full.

Also ..while doing the assembly, every once in a while , like when a "layer" is done, sprinkle some of the dry mixture and a little melted butter on top .sort of like making lasagna but butter and sugar are the layer separators.

Assembly done, take the pan out to where the aforementioned Big Green Egg Mini is patiently waiting.

 Now…    There was lump left over from the lobster fest yesterday and I'm sticking to my "tradition" of never taking out old lump so I stirred it up and dumped a little bit of virgin Humphrey lump on top of it.   (don't cringe , I know "everybody" says to always use new lump and put the old stuff on top but nobody ever told me this and I now have a "tradition" to keep…also it's a lot less work my way).

Make a small divit in the lump, place in a Big Green Egg FS24 Fire Starter cube, open vents, remove top vent and close dome and watch her rip!   In only a few minutes it'll be screaming , take your tool (your ash tool not the other one) and try to sort of spread out the lump, then insert your firebrick platesetter substitute and the mini porcelain original equipment grate on top of that .

Let the temp stabilize. At this point the temp in the Mini will either keep climbing or the firebrick will put a seriuous hurt on your fire and you'll have to wait for the fire to "recover" . Regardless, when you're at aprox 350 put the Monkey Bread in.

Check after 20 minutes ..the top should look like it's starting to bake … take a toothpick and pick at the top "balls" …are they "cakey" … no …. Still "doughy" … close dome come back in 5 MINUTES, NO LONGER and repeat the test procedure .

When you discover that Lo and Behold, the top "balls" are "cakey" ..you are not done, take the toothpick or better yet, a fork, and dig down into the sauce in the center of the pan and try to dig out a dough ball from the middle down at the bottom (or top depending on your persuation) … is it "cakey" … no still "doughy" … close lid come back in a FEW MINUTES NO LONGER and do the "dig in" test … As soon as you find one on the bottom (top?) done, pull it…IT'S DONE. If you wait a minute of 2 too long, you will smell "burnt marshmellows" and YOUR ARE SCREWED because the sugar burned and your "bottom" or "top" will be a black mess.

Now, if you catch it just right, pull from the heat and let it rest for around ONE or TWO minutes, then overturn the pan on a plate … it's baked doughballs with wonderful nutty syrup running down …….just wonderful!!! …and then, utter "Viola!!". and watch your guests gasp at your Culinary Prowess!

Check the pics and enjoy.