Monkey Bread
Monkey bread made the original way with yeast dough rather than biscuit dough. An ideal recipe to make with kids.
Ingredients
Ingredients for dough
- 8 grams active dry yeast or 16 grams fresh yeast
- 70 grams water tepid
- 500 grams strong white flour
- 40 grams sugar
- 7 grams salt
- 2 grams Vanilla extract
- 225 grams milk lukewarm
- 65 grams eggs without shell
- 35 grams butter melted
Ingredients for topping
- 60 grams butter
- 150 grams Demerara sugar
- 5 grams cinnamon
- 35 grams Pecan nuts chopped (about 15 nuts)
Instructions
Instructions for dough
- Mix water, yeast and a sprinkle of the flour to the bowl of a standing mixer
- Leave until the yeast activates, about 10 min
- Add the remaining flour, sales, vanilla, sugar, milk, egg and butter to the bowl
- Mix with the dough hook on low for 2 minutes (Kitchen Aid 1)
- Mix with the dough hook on medium for 5 minutes (Kitchen Aid 2; dough should pull away from sides and form a ball)
- Shape dough roughly into a ball
- Return to bowl, cover bowl, and leave to rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size (about 1 hour)
- Leave to rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size (about 1.5 hours)
Instructions for bread
- Grease ring cake tin
- Get the chopped pecans and put them in a position handy to the cake tin
- Melt butter in a small bowl and allow to cool
- Mix Demerara sugar and cinnamon in a second small bowl
- Dust work surface with some flour
- Pour dough onto your work surface
- Form dough balls each of 30 grams weight (cut off dough, weigh, shape into ball, put to side)
- Dip a dough ball into butter
- dip a dough ball into cinnamon and sugar
- Put a dough ball into loaf tin
- Put in more dough balls until you have a layer of them, ensure there is a little bit of space between adjacent balls as they will grow
- Sprinkle on half the chopped nuts
- Put another layer of dough balls into the cake tin (as above)
- Sprinkle on the remaining chopped nuts
- Cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour)
- Heat Oven to 180º C (160º C fan)
- Bake until cake is risen and golden, and a toothpick comes out dry (30-35 minutes)
- Cool for 15 min
- Turn out upside down onto a cooling rack
- Rip apart with your bare hands helped by small children
Notes
Also known as Monkey Brains, Bubble Loaf, Sticky Bread and Pinch Me Loaf.
One time I baked this in a round tin rather than a ring tin. I had to bake much longer. After 30 minutes I removed the cake from the tin, inserted in onto a baking tray, and returned it to the oven for another 15 minutes.