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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Monkey Bread

How to Make Monkey Bread

Monkey bread is such a neat invention.  Think of soft, warm homemade bread baked with your favorite glaze. It’s really a pull-apart loaf, something that you can eat with your fingers or a fork and perfect for casual get-togethers. Each morsel of bread is coated with cinnamon, sugar, or another glaze. And it’s so simple—a great project with the kids.

Think of monkey bread as a technique, a type of dessert, with supporting recipes.

Monkey bread is easy to make and doesn’t require a lot of precision. You have to wait for the bread to rise but there is not a great time commitment. And it’s a great kids’ project. Kids love handling and dipping the bread pieces and it really doesn’t matter how it’s put together.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Mix the dough/add the goodies.

·         Monkey bread lends itself to freelancing; you don’t have to follow a recipe.

·         You can start with your favorite bread recipe. To fill a bundt pan, you will need a recipe that calls for about four cups of flour. Mix as you would another bread.

·         We usually add several tablespoons of sugar for a little sweeter bread. For an egg-rich bread, add an egg or two. You can also add cocoa, dry fruit, or nuts.

2. Cut the chunks.

·         The easiest way to cut the dough is to roll it out on the counter and cut across the dough with a sharp knife. The chunks should be no larger than walnuts.

3. Coat the chunks.

·         There are two ways to coat the chunks: dip the chunks in butter and roll them in a sugar mixture or make a buttery slurry and dip the chunks in the slurry. For cinnamon monkey bread, dip the chunks in butter and roll them in a cinnamon and sugar mixture.

·         Nuts or fruit can be added between layers if desired. If you want to top your monkey bread with nuts, place nuts in the bottom of the pan since the monkey bread will be inverted onto a platter after baking.

·         The chunks can be rolled in a mixture of sugar and spices and finely chopped nuts.

·         Jam, maple syrup, or fruit syrup can be used as the basis for a dipping slurry.

4. Load the pan.

·         You don’t have to use a bundt pan; any pan will do though tube pans and springform pans may leak.

5. Bake the bread.

·         Bake the bread at 350 degrees or as directed by the recipe. Once baked, let the monkey bread cool in the pan for about five minutes before inverting on a platter. This gives the glaze a chance to set up a bit so that it does not run everywhere when inverted.

·         Serve the monkey bread warm and fresh.

Sticky Bun Monkey Bread is one of our favorite monkey breads. (We sell that as a mix on our web site, www.preparedpantry.com.)   We prefer yeast breads over quick breads though quick breads will do when you are in a hurry.

The Secrets of Great Monkey Bread

As we have worked with monkey bread, we have learned certain tricks to really good monkey bread.  We would like to share those with you:

1. Go hygroscopic. It took us a while to discover that adding hygroscopic ingredients (those that absorb moisture from the air), made for a moister, tastier monkey bread. We now add potato flour to the dough and brown sugar to the glaze. (You can buy potato flour on our site.)

2. Get gooey. Use plenty of butter and a sugary glaze. Again, a little brown sugar helps.

3. Keep the pieces small. Smaller pieces of dough and flat pieces have more surface area to dredge in your sugary coating. Chunks should be no larger than a walnut.

4. Cover with foil. The sugary glaze caramelizes and the top may burn while baking. The simple solution is to drape a sheet of aluminum foil over the top of the pan during the last ten minutes of baking. The foil will reflect the heat.

5. Use a thermometer. Just because the top of the loaf is brown doesn’t mean the center of the loaf is cooked. The best way to tell is with a thermometer. When the center of the loaf reaches 185 to 190 degrees, the bread is done. (You can buy an insta-read thermometer for around $10 on our site.)

6. Eat it fresh. Still warm is the way to go. Like all bread products, day old is not as good. You can try reheating it in an oven at 250 degrees but some glazes may become too runny so watch your monkey bread carefully.