Monkey Bread - May Secret Recipe Club #Recipe

It was a long and busy month of conferences, traveling and obligations. After a great trip up to Seattle for the SoFabU On the Road conference, It was hard finding enough time to get into the kitchen. We ended up going out to eat more than I like. The first weekend I had free to spends some time baking, I had a marathon bread baking session for upcoming posts and family requests.

When I started looking through my assigned blog for The Secret Recipe Club May assignment, Cheese With Noodles, I found a bread that would fit perfectly into that baking session. Recently I made a Savory filled Monkey Bread with BundtBakers, so I was ready to hit the sweet side of Monkey Bread with this recipe from Anna in Alaska.

I have been looking for just the right reason to make a sweet Monkey Bread.

Anna posts her favorite recipes on the blog and each one is only shared after it has been well tested. She has a wide variety of recipes to choose from with sweet and savory, breakfasts to beverages. The next recipe of hers I want to try with my family will be her Umami Burgers.

Monkey Bread is really easy to make. I actually made this one in my bread machine on the dough setting. Though I love kneading a loaf of bread, talk about stress relief, I don't always have the time to devote to sticky hands and dough. Making the dough in my bread machine saves me a lot of time and clean-up. The actually shaping and coating is easy enough to do afterwards.

Anna mentioned that her husband enjoyed this Monkey Bread more than cinnamon rolls, my husband and youngest felt the same way. They loved how each ball of dough was covered in cinnamon goodness, and the powdered sugar glaze was a nice added touch.

So I put all my ingredients in my bread machine dough pan and let the machine work it's magic. It was a pretty soft white loaf. In Anna's post she mentions letting her dough rise in a warmed oven, the bread machine is my substitute for that. It creates the perfect warm and humid place to let the bread rise. Though this particular weekend, after baking so many types of bread, I am sure it was already warm and plenty humid enough to just rise on the counter!

Once it had risen once, I assembled all the ingredients. It needs melted butter, a brown sugar, cinnamon mixture and a bundt pan sprayed lightly with non-stick spray.

Then divide the dough into walnut-sized piece, dip in melted butter and roll in the brown sugar, cinnamon mixture. Each little covered ball goes into the bundt pan and into the oven.

The only thing that makes this warm, gooey ring of cinnamon goodness better is a little powdered sugar icing  drizzled over the top.

Ready to dive right in? Let's get started.

Monkey Bread
recipe adapted from Cheese with Noodles

You will Need:

• 1/4 c. lukewarm water
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp. yeast
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 3/4 c. whole milk
• 1 egg
• 3 3/4 c. flour, more or less as needed to create a sticky but cohesive dough
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 t. salt

Cinnamon Sugar topping

• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Powdered Sugar Glaze

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 c. powdered sugar
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine the ingredients inside your bread machine dough pan in the order directed by your instruction manual. Set the machine to the dough cycle.

After the dough has gone through a first rise, divide into walnut-sized pieces. Dip in melted butter and roll in the cinnamon and brown sugar mixture. Place in a greased bundt pan and repeat until all the pieces are coated an in the pan. Let the bread rise until it has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the Monkey Bread for 25 to 30 minutes. Let the bread cool slightly till you can handle the pan. Invert onto a platter and let come to room temperature before drizzling with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

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