Monkey Bread

For Christmas last year, I received an awesome bake-book called Baking Unplugged by Nicole Rees.  The book contains amazing recipes, all made without the use of fancy-schmancy electric mixers, etc.  I thought it would be fun to get back to the roots of baking, before glorious Kitchen Aid counter-top mixers, before wonderful hand-held electric mixers, when baking really was a labor of love.  Hand mixing, hand kneading, hand whatevering.

I awoke in the morning with a strong desire to bake, which isn't unusual for me on Saturday mornings.  However, I soon realized that my fridge was fresh out of eggs and baking would be a bit difficult without them.  I consulted my Christmas gift and found a recipe for Monkey Bread.

Mmmmm, monkey bread!  I remember when my mom used to bake this delightfully sinful dessert.  Think of small cinnamon rolls baked together in a bundt pan to make a sin-tastic cake of yumminess.  Oh how I loved the Monkey Cake.  I can still remember how the gooey cinnamon and sugar outside and the soft doughy inside made my taste buds dance with joy!

So, I decided to try it.  I began by making the dough (recipe below).  Since I couldn't use a mixer, I had to hand knead the dough.  And it wasn't as difficult as I expected it to be!  While it's a lengthy and laborious task, it certainly wasn't the most difficult thing I've had to do.  Besides, all of that hand kneading made for a wonderful arm and shoulder work out.  I almost don't feel bad for eating almost the entire finished product...

Nice Dough

Everything was going as smooth as I had hoped it would.  The bread rose like it was supposed to, the cinnamon and sugar went on like it was supposed to, everything was going great!  I popped the labor of love into the oven and waited.  The house began to emit a glorious aroma of cinnamon and sugar and yum.  Finally, the timer went off and my monkey bread was ready!  I waited the suggested 3 minutes for my beautiful bread to cool before inverting it on a serving platter.

Beautiful Presentation

And it flopped.  Seriously flopped.  It did not stick together like my mother's Monkey Bread.  Not. One. Bit.  All of the pieces tumbled out of the bundt pan and onto my plate.  My monkey bread had turned into mini cinnamon rolls.  Thankfully, they tasted just as sin-tastic as my mother's monkey bread and all was right with the world again!  Now if only I can figure out how to make the suckers stick together... I guess that means I'll have to make the recipe again some day.  Aw shucks!

The Flop

Want to try your hand at the recipe?  Here ya go:

Dough-
3 C all-purpose flour (divided)
1 (1/4 oz) pkg. fast-acting yeast
2/3 C warm water
1/4 C unsalted butter, melted
3 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt

In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup of flour with the yeast. Stir in the warm water until combined. Cover the bowl and let ferment for 20 to 30 minutes. Stir in the melted butter, sugar, and salt into the fermented water/yeast/flour concoction. Stir in the remaining flour as best as you can into a stiff, shaggy dough*.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured wooden board and begin to knead.

*note: I think the recipe can call for less flour, my ball of dough ended up quite dry and did not absorb all of the flour.  Try adding 1/2 cup flour at time until a nice dough is formed.

Knead the dough for approximately 15 minutes until the dough is smooth and very easy to handle.  The longer you knead, the greater the bread texture.  When you're done kneading, place the dough in a lightly buttered mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, approx 30 minutes.

Filling-
2/3 C sugar
1 Tbs ground cinnamon
1/4 C unsalted butter, melted

Liberally butter a 12-cup Bundt pan. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. In a separate small bowl, pour the melted butter.  Gently press out the excess air in the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured wooden board. Roll into a 14" x 9" rectangle. Brush lightly with melted butter. Sprinkle with 1 Tbs cinnamon-sugar.

Roll up the dough lengthwise, starting to roll from the long edge. Pinch the seam to seal. Roll the log on the board so that it's seam side down. Cut the log in half crosswise. Stretch the small logs to about 8" long. Cut each of these logs lengthwise into 2 skinnier 8" logs. You now have 4 logs. Cut each log into 6 pieces. Dip each piece in the remaining melted butter in the bowl and then roll in the remaining cinnamon-sugar. Place the sugared dough balls into the Bundt pan, stacking neatly. Butter the top of the dough.  Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 40-50 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with only moist crumbs clinging.  Let cool briefly in the pan, but no longer than 3 minutes.  Invert onto a serving platter.

Recipe adapted from:

Rees, Nicole. Baking Unplugged. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2009.