Monkey Bread

Every Sunday, we get together with some of A's family for a brunch. We rotate houses and on our recent turn I made monkey bread, a spinach strata and another bit of food that I can't honestly remember. But that's okay, because the best part was the monkey bread!

Finished bread

Monkey Bread

You can use all white flour if you like. You can also skip the sugar glaze. I use this same dough to make cinnamon rolls and coffee cakes. It's an adapted version of the Norwegian Coffee Cake dough from The Tassajara Bread Book, which is a nice cookbook to have for any kind of bread making. It tends to be pretty straightforward and explains complicated steps with illustrations and words.

2 packages dry yeast (1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour  

3//4 cup brown sugar (I used Moscovado, which is super dark but you might prefer light brown or regular dark brown. Any will work)
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour 

Sectioned dough, in very early, very dim morning light

Mix the lukewarm milk with a couple teaspoons of sugar and stir in the yeast. Stir in the 1 1/2 cups of white flour, beating well. Set aside for at least 15 minutes in a warm place. This is your sponge - it will start to rise quickly.


Using a stand mixer (or by hand), cream the butter and add the sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.


Add the salt, cardamom, and the yeast sponge. Beat in 2 cups of whole wheat flour and the remaining 1 cup of white flour, one cup at a time, scraping down the sides. Beat well to form a soft dough. 


Generously flour your work surface and your hands and start kneading your dough (you can also use the dough hook of your mixer). The dough will be soft, so you may need to add a bit of white flour (probably 1/2 cup, possibly a little more) to make it smooth and not sticky. It will still be soft. Form it into a ball and transfer to a large bowl.


If you're going to use it right away, let it rise until doubled in size. If you are going to use it later, just pop the whole bowl in the refrigerator, covered with a damp cloth. I'll leave it in overnight and then just pull it out about 30 minutes before I need to use it so it can warm up. 


Flatten the dough into a thick, 8-inch square. Cut it into small squares (see photo above). At this point I took Deb's notes on how to assemble the dough. I used melted butter and then a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon and salt for the coating process. I'll echo that you don't want to overfill the pan, because once you're done with the second rise you still need at least an inch of space left in your pan.

Allow the shaped dough to rise to about double. Don't rush this part!

Bake at 350 for 45 - 50 minutes. The sugar mixture may begin to bubble, and you'll end up with a caramel-like color on the top of your bread. Once done, remove the pan from oven and let sit for about seven minutes, the invert onto a plate and let bread cool further there.

**I used the sugar glaze from Tassajara for a last touch. It's pretty simple: 1 cup powdered sugar to 4-6 teaspoons of milk, cream or lemon juice. I used milk but on a different bread, the lemon juice would be great.**