“Mom, what’s cooking today?” Garv asked in a very enthusiastic tone. And equally excited, I replied, “I am baking Monkey Bread today." And I am thankful to Kelly Lawson to decide to Pull apart bread as the theme for November 2017. I wanted to make this bread for a long time now.
What??? And the expression on Garv’s face was incredible. A Monkey bread. Do you mean you will use a monkey as an ingredient in your monkey bread?
And I had a burst of laughter that I could not stop for the next 5 minutes. He understood that the monkey is not an ingredient in Monkey Bread. So what is monkey bread? His next question. And I happily explained.
What is Monkey Bread?
This Hungarian dish became popular in the US when the Hungarian immigrants started selling this dish in America in the 1880s. The sticky monkey bread is a sweet sticky coffee cake with cinnamon sprinkled on it. This dish is a popular breakfast treat in the US.
Today we are going to make savory Monkey bread recipe, instead of the sweet version. Do you remember the cheese garlic pull apart bread or the spicy pull apart bread that I bake for your breakfast?
“How can I forget to pull apart bread? I had to fight with my friends to eat some part of it in school. They will just snatch pieces from me, it’s so easy to pull pieces from that bread.” Garv sadly explained his grievance. Lol.
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Correct, so today we are going to make a similar easy pull-apart monkey bread.
Garv’s curiosity and questions kept increasing, and he kept shooting one after the other.
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So, what is monkey bread made of?
Recipe to make monkey bread fairly simple. To make monkey bread dough all you need is flour, yeast, oil, water, sugar, and salt. Again, sugar is just to activate the yeast. For the flavor of the bread, you will need butter, cheese, pizza sauce, and mixed herbs.
“And that’s it?” Garv looked surprised.
Would you use the regular loaf tin to bake this bread?
Ideally, you need a bundt pan to make monkey bread. But because I don’t have one, I will show you how to make monkey bread without a bundt pan.
“Wow! That’s amazing.” Garv's eyes glittered with fun and thrill. He said, “Mom, I am already feeling hungry. How long do you bake monkey bread for?”
I then have to tell him to keep quiet if he wanted to eat the bread. The curiosity to eat the bread zipped his mouth and bought an end to his questions. I could thankfully proceed with this best monkey bread recipe.
I have curated the list of recommended tools and ingredients for baking. I recommend only tried and tested products that have given satisfactory results in my kitchen.
If you bake this recipe, please share a picture with me on my Instagram using #bakewithsonia
Let's make Monkey Bread
In a bowl take yeast and sugar. Dissolve it with lukewarm water and let it rest for 10 min or until yeast froths. Once yeast is activated, it’s time to move to the next step. In a large mixing bowl, take flour and salt. Add activated yeast solution to it and start kneading the dough by adding little water at a time.
We need soft and little sticky dough for the bread. Add the water accordingly. I consumed 200 ml water in total including water used for dissolving the yeast. Amount of water totally depends upon the quality of flour you are using and weather conditions as well. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the dough and continue to knead.
Initially, the dough will be a little sticky. Don’t worry, just continue to knead it for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes of kneading, you will get a soft, smooth, elastic and non-sticky dough. Place the kneaded dough in a greased bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel or cling wrap. Let the dough rest until it doubles in volume. This process is known as the First rise (proofing).
Time taken by the dough to be double in volume, depends upon the climatic conditions. An ideal temperature for proofing is 35 °C to 40 °C. As per Pune’s weather, it took 35 minutes to the dough to double in volume. Once dough doubles in volume, take it out on a lightly floured surface and punch it to release the air.
Be gentle with the dough after all yeast is a living organism. Divide the dough into equal sized small portions. I divided it into 30 equal portions. Size of each portion depends on your choice. I personally like the small portion size. Easy to hold for my kiddo.
Let's assemble the bread
To assemble the bread, we need grated cheese, pizza sauce, mixed herbs, and melted butter. Take a bundt pan or in case you don’t have, then just make a small ball of parchment paper and place it in the center of a greased pan (as shown in the picture).
Now dip each dough ball into butter and start arranging in the pan. Prepare one layer with dough balls.
Apply a layer of pizza sauce followed by a layer of cheese. Sprinkle mixed herbs. Now repeat the layer of dough balls followed by pizza sauce and cheese.
Cover it with cling wrap and let it rest until it doubles. This is known as the second rise. For me, it took 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven at 200 °C.
Bake the bread in a preheated oven at 200 °C for 30 minutes. Once baked, take the bread out of the oven. Demould it.
Serve this amazingly delicious Monkey bread with hot Mushroom Spinach soup.
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Monkey Bread Calories Count
BreadBakers Theme for November 2017
#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.
We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.
If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.
Savory Breakfast Monkey Bread Recipe from Scratch | #BreadBakers
Savory Monkey Bread is an incredible bread and delicious breakfast bread. This cheesy pull apart monkey bread is fun to make and easy to eat.
Ingredients
- 300 gm Whole Wheat Flour
- 100 gm All Purpose Flour
- 12 gm Fresh Yeast
- 1 tbs Sugar
- 1 tbs Salt
- 2 tbs Oil
- 200 ml Water
- 4 tbs Butter
- 100 gm Cheese
- 2 tbs Pizza Sauce
- 1 tbs Mixed herbs
Instructions
- In a bowl take yeast and sugar. Dissolve it with lukewarm water and let it rest for 10 min or until yeast froths.
- In a large mixing bowl, take flour and salt. Add activated yeast solution to it and start kneading the dough by adding little water at a time.
- Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the dough and continue to knead.
- After 10 minutes of kneading you will get soft, smooth, elastic and non-sticky dough.
- Place the kneaded dough in a greased bowl and cover it with cling wrap. Let the dough rest until it doubles in volume.
- Once dough doubles in volume, take it out on a lightly floured surface and punch it to release the air.
- Divide the dough into equal sized small portions.
- To assemble the bread, we need grated cheese, pizza sauce, mixed herbs and melted butter.
- Now dip each dough ball into butter and start arranging in the pan.
- Apply a layer of pizza sauce followed by a layer of cheese. Sprinkle mixed herbs.
- Cover it with cling wrap and let it rest until it doubles.
- Meanwhile preheat the oven at 200 °C.
- Bake the bread in a preheated oven at 200 °C for 30 minutes
- Once baked, take the bread out from the oven. Demould it.
Notes
- For this recipe, you can use 6 gm of dry yeast or 4 gm of Instant/ Active dry yeast.
- Amount of cheese and pizza sauce depends upon personal choice.
- Don’t add recommended water amount in one go. Add little at a time.
- While baking, use both coils (bottom as well as top).
- I made this recipe with 75% wheat flour. In case you want to try with 100% wheat then you need to add 2 tbs water extra.
- Keep the dough at some warm and dry place for rise.
Its amazing.but i made it in a small cloaf tin i hav..and i prepared small quantity..but it came out nicely but nt like what you hav madethe shape..i hav to buy a bundit pan..isnt ??thanks sonia ji..for motivating me to bake new things.
Thank you so much for liking the recipe and for trying it. Happy Baking!
I love the talk you had with your kid.Pizza flavoured monkey bread! Will make it for my elder one when she comes home. She will definitely enjoy it.
Awesome. Do not forget to share your Monkey bread pics on my FB Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/sonlicious/?ref=bookmarks
Quite a different way to serve pizza…in the form of a monkey bread. Looks so tempting.
Thanks Mayuri.
Hello Sonia, I loved the dialogues with your son and how intrigued he was to know about monkey bread 🙂 You’ve explained the history and it was good to read about it. Your bread seems to be oozing with great taste and flavours!
Thanks a bunch Namita for liking the recipe and the conversation between with my Ladoo
Wow, what a flavorful and delicious bread that is Sona. It looks and sounds yummy!!
Thanks Pavani
I love your story along with your gorgeous bread. Kids are so insightful aren’t they?
True that Karen. My child is so inquisitive.
– Sonia
You did an amazing job with your monkey bread and I can only imagine how quickly it got gobbled up!
Thanks for liking the bread Julie. you are correct, the bread could only survive one meal.
Love the pizza flavors in Monkey Bread! I bet your boy gobbled it up.
The Boy boy and the Father boy ate everything. Lolz. Thanks for liking the work Eileen.