Monkey Bread!--Izzy

Monkey Bread, aka Pull Apart Bread, is a sticky, sweet creation which originated in the
50’s. It is called Pull Apart Bread because it literally is pull apart bread: little bits of sweet bread
coated in cinnamon sugar all held together by a caramel sauce is baked and turned out onto a
platter, and your guests, or just yourself, can help themselves and p ull apart the pieces of bread
and eat it just like that. This recipe is pretty simple to make and the presentation NEVER fails to
impress your guests. The dough for this can be homemade (recipe below), by hand, stand mixer,
or food processor, or you can purchase some Pillsbury biscuit dough and use that instead if you
are short on time or just too lazy to make one homemade. The only big issue for the making of
this recipe is the time; you can begin making it in the morning or afternoon and serve it in the
evening, or make it the day before and bake it off the next.
I believe the first time that I made Monkey Bread was for a family Thanksgiving party,
which means that there was A LOT of pressure when making it because I had to make sure that it
looked good, tasted good, and made them feel good after. I put the pan of the monkey bread into
the oven to bake during dinner time and once dinner was over and the bread was ready, I turned
it out, and it was perfect. I had never been so proud of one of my baked creations ever, and that is
saying a lot since I bake so many things. And within five minutes of turning it out, it was all
gone! All of my family members were complimenting on how well I did on this masterpiece. So,
without further ado, on with the recipe!
For the dough:
● 2 tablespoons butter, cut up into pieces
● 1 cup milk
● 1/3 cup water
● 1/4 cup granulated sugar
● 2 1/4 tsp active dried yeast
● 3 1/4 cups allpurpose
flour
● 2 tsp salt
For the cinnamon sugar coating:
● ½ cup of Sugar
● 2 Tbsp ground Cinnamon
For the caramel sauce:
● 2 sticks butter
● 2 cups packed dark brown sugar
● 1/2 cup heavy cream
● pinch of salt
Instructions:
1. For dough: Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt together by hand or machine.
2. In a measuring jug, heat together the milk, water, and butter in microwave until the butter
is melted. If too hot, let it cool to room temp.
3. Once cooled enough, slowly add the milk mixture to dry ingredients. Mix for 2 minutes
to activate the yeast. Mix until the dough is shiny and smooth, 68
minutes.
4. In a large bowl, rub vegetable oil (or any flavorless oil). Place dough in bowl and move it
around the bowl until it is fully coated with the oil.
5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled, 1 ½ 2
hours.
6. For caramel: add ingredients into a pot and heat until the sugar dissolves and the butter
melts. Set aside to cool.
7. After proofing, punch the air out of the dough and gently remove it from the bowl and
knead lightly on a floured surface.
8. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the dough into big and small pieces, varying sizes.
9. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon and toss in dough pieces covering
each piece generously
10. In a bundt pan, or regular cake pan, drizzle a layer of the caramel sauce and layer in ½ of
the dough pieces
11. Repeat and continue adding in layers until all pieces and only a small amount of caramel
remains.
12. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and let the bread rise for 2530
minutes or until
puffy and they have risen 12
inches higher.
13. To make the day before refrigerate the bread once assembled, bake the next day
14. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
15. Unwrap the pan and bake for 3540
minutes or until the top is brown and caramel begins
to bubble around edges.
16. Cool the monkey bread in the pan for 5 minutes (not too long or the bread will become
too difficult to move), then turn out onto a platter or large plate and allow to cool slightly.
Enjoy straight away!
Now there are many different ways to make this. You can make the pieces smaller and
place them in smaller, individual sized bundt pans; you can stuff the pieces with cream cheese,
just for a little surprise and extra flavor, before adding to pan; you can throw in 1 cup of
chopped, toasted pecans in between the layers of the dough and caramel sauce; you can even
make them savory and make them pizza monkey bread by switching out the caramel sauce for a
delicious pizza sauce, pepperoni bits, basil, garlic, and cheese. The dough recipe here could also
be used to make homemade ovenbaked
donuts! Just know that once this traditional recipe is
mastered, you will be able to alter it however you like let
your imagination run WILD.