-Sicily. Sicily to start us.
[ Bell dings ]
Ah. It's fresh.
[ Laughs ]
Welcome back
to "The Cooking Show"
at my apartment.
[ Laughter ]
And I'm gonna show you guys
how to make monkey bread --
a jalapeño-popper monkey bread.
I love jalapeño poppers,
and we're stuck at home,
and there's nothing better
than cheddar, jalapeños,
and bacon.
So we're kind of combining
those things.
Monkey bread -- you know,
it's a pull-apart bread.
We're making our own dough.
It's really simple.
I'm adding into it
cubes of cheddar.
And then I'm also
gonna layer into it,
like, shredded grated cheddar.
I would usually use, like,
an orange cheddar,
but with the corona,
all I could get
was the white cheddar.
I did not grow up
eating monkey bread.
The first time I made it
or even had it was
when I was working
at "Saveur" magazine.
And they were like,
"Can you develop a recipe
for monkey bread?"
And I was like,
"Yeah, sure, no problem.
And I literally had to
go home immediately
and Google what the fuck
monkey bread was,
'cause I had no idea.
The origin
of the term "monkey bread"
comes from the pastry
being a finger food.
This is off of Wikipedia,
by the way,
[Laughs] just to be clear.
So, it's basically,
I'm crowdsourcing.
The consumer would pick apart
the bread as a monkey would.
That seems so obvious.
We got Snack'N Cheese.
I'm eating so much cheese today.
Mmm. Mmmm, cheese.
If you notice,
yeah, I am wearing sequins.
I hadn't really washed my hair
or put on makeup all week,
so I went all-out for you guys,
had to wear my sequins,
put my hair back a little bit,
made myself look pretty.
But I'm still wearing
my Adidas slides.
[ Laughs ]
We're cutting the bacon.
Just slicing
about a pound of bacon.
I'm gonna cook this
and render out the fat.
This is technically a lard-on,
I'm cutting it
into these shapes.
So, we're gonna cut up
some jalapeño.
I'm using two.
This is also why
I just want to make sure
you're washing your hands
very well,
because it's gonna burn
your fucking face.
Another reason why not to touch
your face, 'cause jalapeño.
Take the seeds
out of one of them.
I don't want to be too spicy,
but I do want
a little bit of heat.
If you want all that heat,
you can feel free
to add in all of it, okay?
I'm going to heat my milk up.
It's one cup of milk
with basically
just 2 tablespoons of butter.
And you want to heat up
your milk to about 115 degrees.
As soon as my butter melts,
that's when I know
it's at the right temperature.
You're gonna add in a third cup
of water with this, too.
And once this is all --
the butter is melted,
it's gonna be ready to go.
But while I'm over here,
let's cook our bacon.
Alright, so, a pound of bacon.
Right on in.
It's a lot of fuckin' bacon.
[ Laughs ]
But you're just gonna
let this cook
and render out
all the fat and everything.
Alright, this is basically done.
Into our same mixer,
We are putting
two packets of active dry yeast.
Okay, so, two packets.
Right on in.
I'm adding
2 tablespoons of sugar.
And then our
butter-water-milk mixture.
And you're just gonna dissolve.
Look, it's already
starting to bloom.
Sicily.
♪♪
I'm just gonna grate
some cheese.
♪♪
Snack'N Cheese.
God, there's something
so beautiful
about bacon just frying.
Look at it.
-We can do some in slo-mo.
-You want to?
[ Soft, sultry jazz plays ]
We will strain this.
And I'll save
all that bacon fat.
Lookit, that's
a shitload of bacon fat.
Should I show you all
the bacon fat I already have?
-Yeah.
-Bacon fat,
right next to
my hermit-crab food.
-Oh, yeah, what happened
to your hermit crab?
-She's here.
I have a hermit crab.
Her name is Laura Sant.
I'm gonna show you guys.
But this is her food.
Oh!
Smells so gross. But look.
It's like little tiny shrimp.
Behind you,
we're gonna add our flour.
I think our shit's ready to go.
See how it's all bloomed.
It's actually, like,
overbloomed now, practically.
Gonna add a little bit of salt
into this.
Just 2 teaspoons' worth.
And then get out
a little swirly deal.
We're gonna add that into here.
4 cups of flour, all-purpose,
if you please.
Mix it for a little bit,
and then I'll add in
the other ingredients.
♪♪
[ Mixer whirring ]
Black is not what to wear
when you're making flour stuff.
♪♪
Oops.
[ Whirring stops ]
It's crazy,
Gonna add in my cheese.
It's, like, halfway mixed.
I'm gonna add in my cheese,
my jalapeño...
♪♪
...and my cooked bacon.
And this is cooled down enough
that you can add it in,
right there.
♪♪
[ Mixer whirring ]
♪♪
What did you say? What?
Sicily?
♪♪
Sicily.
♪♪
Ah.
Just gonna knead it by hand,
just to kind of
get it incorporated,
all these little chunks,
and then we gonna let it rest
and rise
for about 45 minutes, an hour,
depending on how hot
your apartment is or your house,
wherever you're living.
So, it's smooth.
It's a little bit elastic.
Most of the things
are incorporated into it.
Cover it with, like, a towel,
and let it rise.
I'm gonna put it right over here
by the oven,
because it's really warm
over here.
Now we're gonna beer ourselves,
take a little break,
come back, roll some balls.
Our dough has risen enough.
Looks really good.
See how much fluffier it is
in there.
And we're gonna grease
our Bundt pan.
So this is bacon fat we have.
Look at that bacon fat. Mmm.
Make sure not to get it
on your cute outfit.
This, we're gonna dump out.
♪♪
Oh, look at that.
That looks beautiful!
Roll up your old sleeves
a little bit.
[ Clicks tongue ]
And then
we are going to pat this
into just, like,
a little square.
And I'm trying not to, like --
I'm just patting it
like I would, like,
"Patty cake, patty cake,
patty cake, baker's...
monkey bread."
Stupid.
[ Chuckling ] Oh, God,
that's a really dumb stretch.
So, now we're just
going to cut it
into nice little balls.
Throwing them into here.
So, one layer's done.
We're gonna put some cheese on.
So, the idea to put the cheese
in between here is
that it's gonna be, like,
kind of a little bit gooey.
Alright,
last bit of cheese on top.
Look at that. Looks good.
Into your oven.
350 degrees
for about 35 minutes,
and it'll be good to go.
Mmm. Look at that.
So good.
Sicily.
♪♪
Ah, just five more.
Worked it out while I waited.
It's cooled.
I'm gonna invert it.
Wow, that was
a weird way to say it.
Getting it inverted
onto a cooling rack.
♪♪
Oop. Right on out.
Okay.
Ooooh!
What?
Whoo!
Mmm. Mmm!
I love this.
Bacony.
It's spicy, it's cheesy.
This is the kind of thing,
when you live alone
during quarantine,
that you want to eat and make,
because it kind of
keeps you company,
keeps you --
keeps you warm inside.
Oh, should I get Laura Sant?
Look at her.
She wants to eat it, too.
For the recipe for
jalapeño-popper monkey bread,
click the link below.
♪♪
Sicily.
Sicily, Laura Sant.
Psych.
♪♪
