Having never heard of Monkey Bread I was intrigued, when I found a photo of some on a site called Zergnet. It is not a site I had heard of either, and can’t even remember how I found it. But the site is well worth a look, for those who have an interest in food, since it draws lots of information together from a host of other sites.
Anyway, as I said, I had never heard of Monkey Bread until I saw the photo. I immediately started to investigate and found that usually in is made in a Bundt tin. I don’t have one of those, so searched around and found that it is possible to make mini versions, using a muffin tin.
I decided to try, and see how they turned out. The first thing to say is that I think I divided my dough into slightly too large pieces, and filled the muffin holes rather too full. So the recipe below, which will make enough for a bundt tin made 12 muffin hole ones and, with a 12cm pastry ring, 5cm deep, I used the remaining dough to make a large one. So I estimate that the mixture would actually make 18 mini ones, if the pieces were slightly smaller, as suggested above.
The definite advantage of using a bundt tin is that the caramel sauce can be poured over the top of the dough once in the tin, whereas I had to be very careful when trying to drizzle it over the mini ones.
I will be making this again, in a bundt tin, just as soon as I get hold of one.
In the meantime please enjoy this effort, which is such a delightful way of eating a caramel coated, cinnamon bun, with the individual pieces easily coming away from the rest.
Dough:
- 12 grams active dried yeast
- 60 ml warm water
- 300 ml warm milk, (at least 2% fat)
- 62grams melted butter
- 50 granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 640 grams plain flour
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 125 grams melted butter
- 250 grams granulated sugar
- 62 grams melted butter
- 120 grams light brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 grams Icing Sugar
- 3 tbsp whipping or double cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Mix the water and milk together, in a large bowl(stand mixer is good) and add the dried yeast. Stir the yeast in and leave for a few minutes to start the activation.
- Add the remaining dough ingredients(butter, eggs, sugar, salt, flour) to the bowl and, with the dough hook, mix together until the flour is fully mixed in with the liquid and has started to form a smooth dough. You can do this by hand if you wish.
- Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for a further 5 minutes until it is easily formed into a nice, smooth and springy ball.
- Lightly oil a large bowl and place the dough in
- Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 8 hours( I left mine overnight)
- Remove the risen dough from the bowl and knock it back.
- Flatten it with your hands, or roll it, to a thickness of about half an inch. Cut into pieces( about 45 for a bundt tin and about 90 for 18 muffin holes)
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl
- place the melted butter in another bowl
- Take each piece of dough and coat with butter and then roll it in the sugar mixture.
- Place the piece of dough in the bundt tin, or the muffin pan, 5 pieces to each muffin hole.
- Cover the dough and allow to rise again, for 30 minutes
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160 Fan/350 F
- Mix the remaining melted butter with the brown sugar and vanilla extract then pour over the dough(if using a bundt tin). If using muffin tins gently spoon the mixture over the dough. Since I am recommending smaller pieces it should not have risen as high as mine, and so will not spill over the pan.
- Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes for bundt tin or for 15 to 20 minutes for muffin tins.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
- Turn out onto a cooling rack. If using muffin tins gently turn them over.
- Mix the icing sugar, cream and vanilla extract to make the icing. For a more runny consistency you may add more cream.
- Pipe the icing over the monkey bread and allow to set.