Sweet, soft and sticky. Delicately spiced, nice and nutty and what’s even better… it’s classed as an appropriate breakfast food!! Monkey Bread originated in Hungary but today is probably most popular and well known in America. This may be why, if you are reading this in the UK, you may still be very confused as to what Monkey Bread is! Hopefully by the end of this post you will be blissfully aware of all the delicious joy it has to hold, and be on your way to the shops to buy the ingredients to make it yourself.
Monkey bread gets it name from its pull apart nature. It is made to be eaten with your hands, moreishly and in my opinion without any need for manners or personal etiquette! Dive right in, get your hands sticky, and enjoy! On a technical level, this delectable treat is comprised of balls of dough, rolled in melted butter and spiced sugar and stacked up in a bundt tin. Sounds good right?! So get ready to treat yourself to a delicious breakfast, brunch, snack, dessert… whatever time of day, I can promise you this is one bake that will not last very long in any house! Enjoy!
Ingredients…
For the dough-
550g strong white flour
200ml milk
80g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 sachet fast action yeast
50g light brown sugar
2 eggs
For the filling-
120g salted butter
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground mixed spice
220g light brown sugar
150g pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
For the icing-
100g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Milk
Method…
In a saucepan on a low heat, warm the milk, vanilla and butter until the butter has melted.
Mix together the flour, sugar, yeast and salt.
Allow the milk to cool a little before beating in the eggs, then pour the liquid mix into the flour. Mix to combine, forming a sticky dough. Leave for a few minutes before kneading. This can either be done by hand or with a dough hook in an electric mixer. Knead for around 10 minutes until the dough is smooth. Pop into a large greased bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave until doubled in size- depending on the warmth of the room this should take from 1-2 hours.
Now it's time to (Avengers) assemble! Melt the butter and then in a sperate bowl mix together the sugar and the spices. Grease a bundt tin with butter, then spoon 2 tbsp of the butter into the base of the tin and sprinkle in around 3 tbsps of the spiced sugar.
You now want to divide your dough into individual balls, roughly the size of a 50p. You should get around 60-70 pieces from the dough. With each piece, dip in the melted butter, then coat in the spiced sugar. Layer the balls in the bundt tin, with an occasional sprinkling of the chopped pecans dispersed throughout, leaving just a few to sprinkle on top once baked.
Once all the dough is in the tin, pour over any remaining butter and sugar. Cover with clingfilm and leave to prove again for around an hour.
Meanwhile heat your oven to 160 degrees fan.
Once the bread has risen nicely it is time for the oven! Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, until golden brown.
Leave until the tin is cool enough to touch, then turn out into a serving plate. Stir together the icing sugar, vanilla and enough milk to make a thick but slightly runny icing. Drizzle over the top with a sprinkling of pecans to finish off and voila! A delicious monkey bread awaits you… dive right in and enjoy!