ABLR 4: Vidalia Onion Pie and Monkey Bread

I'm ready to move on to a new cookbook so I thought I'd finish with two ABSOLUTELY YUMMMMY dishes from America's Best Lost Recipes.

I love Vidalia onions. I was first introduced to them by another one of my BFFs, who I'll simply refer to as D. When our kids were babies, I lived just a few minutes up the freeway from her and we would get together every Sunday morning to walk, drink coffee (with cream and two teaspoonfuls of Ghirardelli cocoa, which might explain why we never lost any weight), and unload all our troubles on each other. A few years ago I moved about 25 miles away and now it takes much more planning to get together, but we do so whenever we can and it always involves food.

D. has family all over the United States and when relatives come to town, they always bring food native to their corner of the world, most notably salmon from the Pacific Northwest and Vidalia onions from Georgia (this was before they became available in grocery stores here in California). The first time I had a Vidalia, an aunt had brought it from back east and D. made me a sandwich on rustic bread with mayonnaise, sliced tomatoes, salt, and strips of vegetarian bacon. PURE HEAVEN!

I always buy a Vidalia when I see them at my local grocery store and savor every bite. Recently though, I was at the local Warehouse store and found 10 lb bags of Vidalias so of course, I had to buy a bag. Have you ever noticed how small a 10 lb bag looks in the warehouse and how huge it is once you get it home and into your tiny kitchen? After eating Onion/tomato/vege bacon sandwiches for three days (and having used up only two of about 20 gigantic onions), I knew it was time to look for new ways to cook them.

Now to me, onions are a condiment, a seasoning. Even in my sandwiches, they are used to enhance the tomato and bacon. It would never have occurred to me to use the onions as the main attraction, and never in a pie. Don't let the name fool you - this was incredibly delicious. Crisping the bacon gives it just the right amount of texture and saltiness. A half cup of sour cream is just the right amount of tang. And carmelizing the onions sweetens them even more.



Everyone who tried it (The Geek, my kids and me) was surprised at just how FABULOUS onions could be.

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I love all foods that start out as yeasted dough, especially if I can eat them fresh and warm from the oven. Bread, doughnuts, pretzels, cakes, cinnamon rolls...the list goes on and on. So of course I knew I was going to make Monkey Bread as soon as I saw the recipe. In all truthfulness, it is the reason I bought this particular cookbook - Monkey Bread is featured on the cover and several people commented on how good it was in the online reviews. Once again, the Cooks Illustrated chefs do not disappoint.

Making bread from scratch can be intimidating but thanks to modern-day appliances like the Kitchen Aid stand mixer, whipping up this dough was a breeze. After the first rise, you cut the dough into tiny pieces and roll in butter and cinnamon sugar and then put it in the pan for a second rising.

What comes out of the oven are ooey-gooey bite-sized pieces of pure heaven that you then drizzle with icing. YUMMMM!!

Busy Mom Modifications and Tips

• The kids don't eat pork so I made two onion pies, one with bacon for The Geek and the other with turkey bacon for the kids.
• The recipe calls for the onions to be carmelized in the bacon fat but turkey bacon does not release that much grease so I ended up adding oil to the pan. It was taking forever to get the onions to brown so I added butter, which speeded up the carmelization considerably.
• I am without a food processor right now and am too lazy to make a pie crust manually using a pastry cutter so I bought frozen pie crusts from the store. I didn't particularly like the pre-made crust, but the kids and The Geek said it was fine.
• I love my pastry mat for rolling out dough (see photo of the Monkey Bread dough). The measurements are drawn right on the mat so it's easy to roll things like pie crusts out to exactly the right size. The silicone helps to keep the dough from sticking, and clean-up is a breeze.
• The monkey bread dough took twice as long to rise (for both risings) than the recipe's suggested times. I suspect either my yeast was a bit old or the liquid that I proofed it in was too hot. Fortunately the dough did rise eventually.

The Results
Both items were out-of-this-world delicious!

Ratings

• Difficulty: I rate both these items medium difficulty. Carmelizing onions without burning them takes practice and if you choose to follow the recipe, you would be making the crust from scratch. The monkey bread requires special appliances and kneading skills.
• Time to prepare: The onione pie took about an hour (using a store-bought crust). The monkey bread took about 4 hours because the dough took so long to rise.
• Prognosis: Both are incredibly delicious and well worth the effort.

My Shopping List
Special ingredients for the pie included bacon, turkey bacon, vidalia onions, sour cream, heavy cream, and the pre-made crust. The monkey bread is made with the usual kitchen staples.