Picking at the Monkey Bread

I took a long hiatus, partly due to a broken camera, due to my vacation, and quite frankly, due to the summer and a distaste for heat!

Last week, I got a new camera and I saw a picture of monkey bread on Serious Eats. I've never even heard of monkey bread before, but I have a soft spot for anything containing a lot of brown sugar and covered in glaze! I absolutely had to try it, but between the fact that I don't regularly stock whole milk in the fridge and I wasn't sure if I could put aside enough time, I kept putting it off.

Today, I bought a small bottle of milk from the corner deli with the full intention to start right after getting back. However, I decided that I needed to rest my feet a while, but while I was watching TV, I found myself snoozing. Two hours later, I got up, started the dough and went to the gym (to lessen the guilt, for sure). It was actually nice to work in the steps between other daily activities. =)

monkeybread
Originally uploaded by lemonadestand

Monkey Bread
Cook's Illustrated via Picky Cook

Dough:
2 tbsp softened butter
2 tbsp melted butter
1 c warm milk
1/3 warm water
1/4 c granulated sugar
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp table salt

Coating:
1 c light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick)

Glaze:
1 c confectioner's sugar
2 tbsp milk

1) Heat oven to 200 degrees. When the over reaches the right temperature, turn it off. Butter the inside of a bundt pan with the 2 tbsp of softened butter. (I don't have one, so I just used a deep circular pan.)
2) In a large measuring cup, mix together milk, water, melted butter, sugar, and yeast. Set aside.
3) Mix flour and salt in a standing mixer fixed with the dough hook set on the lowest setting. Slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together, increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough is shiny and smooth (6-7 minutes). *can add up to 2 tbsp flour if to sticky*
4) Turn dough onto lightly flowered counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball. Coat large bowl with nonstick cooking spray and place the dough ball in the bowl. Spray some nonstick spray over the dough. Cover in plastic wrap and place in prewarmed oven until the dough doubles in size, approximately 50 minutes.
5) While the dough is rising, mix the brown sugar (light brown!) and cinnamon together in a bowl. In a second bowl, heat up butter.
6) When dough has risen, gently remove the dough and pat into a 8"x8" square. Using a knife, cut the dough into 64 pieces (1 inch squares).
7) Roll each square into a ball. With one ball at a time, dip into melted butter, allowing excess butter to drip off. Roll in brown sugar mixture, then layer the balls in the buttered bundt pan.
8) Cover the budt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in the turned-off oven until the dough balls have risen again (50-70 minutes).
9) Remove pan from oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the pan and bake until the top is deep brown and the caramel has begun to bubble around th eedges ~30-35 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a platter (if left in too long, the pieces may fall apart when the pan is turned).
10) Whisk confectioner's sugar and milk in a small bowl until the lumps have disappeared. Drizzle glaze over the warm monkey bread. Serve warm.

Note: The first few bites oddly reminded me of Apple Jacks...Sweet cinnamon!

xoxo,
lemonie