Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Eleven (Spelt Right Monkey Bread)

Here's a great recipe for a treat or to impress your friends, family, and neighbors at brunch.

News Flash!! We have provided you a step by step one minute slide show on how to make these.

Ingredients: 2 Spelt Right Pizza Dough Balls, fully thawed to double their frozen size
1/2 cup organic cane sugar (I never using bleached white sugar)
1 tablespoon cinnamon (I use organic)
6 tablespoons real butter, melted (and purified if you would like). Purified means skimming off the impurities from the top of the melting butter and pouring off and using the clear butter, leaving the sediment on the bottom. Throw away the sediment. Also, known as ghee.

And, you will need a bundt pan or other pan with removable sides.

Preheat oven to 400 F

Lightly butter a bundt pan. Be sure to put a cookie sheet or other pan on the shelf beneath where you place the bundt pan because it will drip. Place melted butter in small bowl. Mix together cinnamon and sugar in a separate bowl. Gently pull apart the thawed dough and make 1/2 inch 1 inch dough balls. Then take the dough balls and dip in butter. See picture. Take the dipped dough balls and roll in cinnamon/sugar. Place the coated dough balls in bundt pan. Repeat steps until you are finished with the dough balls.

Bake at 400 oven. Remember to place a pan on a rack under the bundt pan because it will drip and make a mess.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes. Done when balls are not gooey in center. WaaLaa! The perfect treat for a gaggle of 7 year old girls visiting, or for a troop of teenagers over to watch a basketball game. Not a bad surprise for a brunch either.



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Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seven (Spelt Right Morello Cherry Tarts)

Tonight's creation is more of a dessert chronicle, but definitely one worth trying. I have to confess that I am a bit of Trader Joe's addict and can't help but stop there on my way home from Boston to Maine. I have some old favorites, but am always scouring the shelves for something new. Eureka! This week, I found Dark Morello Cherries in Light Syrup made in Germany. All natural, but still loaded with sugar.

Recipe: Organic Spelt Triangles Stuffed with Morell0 Cherries. Ingredients: Spelt Right Pizza Dough (let rise to double its size in the bag), 2 cups Trader Joe's Dark Morello Cherries, 1/2 organic evaporated cane juice, 1/4 cup organic white spelt flour (Vita Spelt brand).

You know the protocol if you have been following the chronicles. If not, here's a little direction. Cut the dough into six even balls. Set aside. In a small bowl combine cherries (without liquid), 1/2 cup of evaporated cane juice (sugar), 1/4 cup of organic spelt. Toss together. Preheat oven to 400. Prepare the dough on a lightly oiled cookie sheet, 4 can fit easily. Stretch dough gently by hand or roll to about 1/4 inch think. Place cherry mixture in center, about 2 teaspoonfuls. Try to squeeze out some of the juice beforehand. Create triangles. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. This is a messy one. The juice leaks from the cherries on to the pan so expect a little smoke in the oven.

Something about the cherries made the dough extra moist, really really nice. The kids were skeptical, but anxious to eat them. Although the limit is a two thumbs up, Spencer gave it a 6 and 1/2 thumbs up. Olivia was equally as thrilled. Their cherry stained faces were proof! A great alternative to a pie because this crust has very little fat and tons of nutrition with the spelt. In a word, yummmm!