This weekend, I made MONKEY BREAD! What's monkey bread? I'm not quite sure where the name comes from but it is essentially all the goodness of a cinnamon bun in little bite-size pieces! Who doesn't love cinnamon buns?
Little mounds of cinnamon buns all baked tightly in a pan, and so fun to pull apart and eat! It's also commonly referred to as cinnamon pull-apart bread. Are you ready for this delicious treat that is so versatile you can have it for breakfast or dessert?
*Note: No monkeys were harmed in the making of this bread.*
I'm sure you could totally make this if you've got strong arms and a kneading technique to boot, but without either of them, I chose to engage my handy bread machine for this important task!
Before I move on to the recipe, I must give a shoutout to whoever tossed that bread machine by the road one fine day, where I happened to chance upon it and bring it home! It still works perfectly fine and I've had it for over a year now! But I only ever had the chance to use it just recently. It is just so amusing to watch and makes breadmaking a breeze!
Alright, here comes the recipe!
Ingredients for the dough:
- 2 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoon yeast
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1/3 cup warm milk
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
Ingredients for the filling:
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Directions:
Place all dough ingredients in a bread machine pan and switch on the dough setting. This was 20 minutes of kneading and 1 hour 10 minutes of rising for my bread machine.
Here's some pictures of the process! What else would I do while waiting for the dough to mix and knead and rise? :D
In the meantime while the dough is rising, melt the 1/4 cup butter in a small pot until brown. Be careful as it may splatter.
Then, in a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar and stir to mix well. Be sure to use a dry bowl; my bowl had a few droplets of water and I ended up with little clumps of cinnamon.
After the dough is done rising, remove from the pan. This might also be a good time to line your baking pans with parchment paper.
On a surface covered with flour, knead the dough with your hands for a couple of minutes until it comes together nicely.
Divide your dough into small, two-inch mounds and shape into little balls. I did this by dividing half the dough into quarters, and then more quarters.
If you are adventurous (unlike me), you can go ahead and dip your dough balls into the melted butter. Otherwise, place them in straight rows in your parchment-lined pan. Don't worry if they are touching each other -- you want them to be right next to each other. This is just to see how many you can fit in your pan.
After deciding how many dough balls to put in your pan, place a few of the dough balls on your kneading surface and drizzle the melted butter over them, tossing them around but maintaining their round shape. You can also dip them into the melted butter in the pot.
Here comes the fun part! You now put your butter-coated dough balls into the cinnamon/sugar mixture and make sure it is well coated with the sweet goodness! I think putting the mixture and the dough balls into a large plastic bag and shaking them also works; I may try that next time. I found this step to be the most time consuming and nerve-wrecking (was I gonna have enough cinnamon/sugar for the rest of the balls?!?!).
After you are done with these two steps of coating, place the dough balls back to the pan.
Now, let them rise for about 15 minutes until they are nice and puffy. After they are done rising, put the pans into the oven at 350°F for about 30 minutes.
This is the hard part -- letting them stay in the oven for 30 minutes! After 10 minutes, I was already dying to open the oven door. This was just before lunch, mind you. It took every ounce of my being to resist the temptation to open the oven! I actually took them out after 25 minutes because they looked ready, but the bottom was still a little soft, so I put them back for another 10 minutes and they came out a little too brown on top.
I just have to show you what they look like inside! They are easy to pull apart into bite-sized pieces and every bite is full of cinnamon sugar! The eggs in the dough really give it a nice golden shine and soft texture like those you see in the bakeries. If one could taste heaven, this must be what heaven tastes like!
And there you have it, cinnamon pull-apart MONKEY bread! Golden brown on top, fluffy and soft on the inside, this is a delicious treat for either breakfast or dessert! Be sure to consume it within 48 hours, as the taste of the bread will change after that. Easy to make for a party or potluck, this sweet bread is sure to astound your friends and family!
Quote of the day (by me):
The world is at your fingertips if you have a bread machine and some parchment paper.
♥ Nikki
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