I heard so much about monkey bread, monkey bread e monkey bread… And what was the result? I had to do it to find out what was so different about this bread made in slices.
I didn’t find many references to the origin of this preparation or the reason for this peculiar name. I just know that it is traditional in the USA, served for breakfast. Basically it’s a sweet bread with spices and butter, topped with a caramel sauce, if desired. Even better if served warm or heated.
Okay, there are a few extra calories, but if it’s any consolation, this version uses wholemeal flour to ease the guilt a little.
A original recipein my modest and humble opinion, there’s something wrong is wrong. Indeed, very wrong. The proportion of dry (wheat flour in general) is much bigger than liquids.
Practically 5 cups of flour for one egg and 125mL of water. There’s butter too, but it’s little humidity for all this dry base. Anticipating this would happen, add by account warm milk to be able to use part of this flour.
Another detail was the flavor. In theory it is a “sweet” bread with spices, in fact, just cinnamon. The detail that the sweet part would come from outside, that is, the dough itself is “white”. I mean, based on the ingredients, it would remind me of a normal bread covered in a sweet syrup.
To improve this, decide to add sugar to the dough as well to give it just a little touch. It’s not sweet, sweet in its essence. The dough, I mean.
Returning to the spice, to give more aromas to the bread I also added cardamom. In this case, I used a Finnish mix to make Korvapuusti / Pulla, another sweet bread with spices, but of Finnish origin. You can use normal cardamom, adding it according to your taste.
Looking at the list of ingredients you will notice that there is a lot of yeast when compared to the whole. Considering that it is a mass difficult for having whole wheat flour e butter, it’s understandable. Furthermore, 3 fermentation periods occur. This way, it didn’t taste like yeast.
Speaking of taste. The result was good, okay, I had great expectations to find out what the hell was so special about this bread. It’s delicious, but there isn’t much justification for how much has been said or as I said, I waited too long. Let’s face it, it has butter and cinnamon, if it were bad… Of course, another recipe will change this first opinion, who knows, right?
Monkey Bread: American Sweet Spice Bread
Makes: 1 big bread
- 380 g wheat flour
- 255 g whole wheat flour
- 200 mL leite integral (warm; whole or semi-skimmed)
- 120 g butter without salt (room temperature)
- 50 g crystal Sugar
- 1 ovo (room temperature)
- 125 mL water (warm)
- 20 g instant dry yeast
- 3 g mel
- 6 g refined salt
- 2-3 g cardamom (I used a Finnish mix)
- 30 g butter without salt (melted)
- cinnamon powder (to sprinkle)
- refined sugar (to sprinkle)
1 cup: 250mL | 1 tablespoon: 15mL.
- Dissolve the honey in warm water, add the instant dry yeast. Stir well, set aside until it foams a lot, about 5-7 minutes.
- Dissolve the crystal sugar and cardamom (previously turned into powder) in the warm milk.
- In a bowl, combine the yeast mixture, flour and salt. Start kneading (or use the planetary mixer with the hook attachment).
- Add the egg and milk mixture little by little. The amount of liquid may vary depending on the moisture of the flour and the size of the egg.
- When the dough starts to take shape, add the butter little by little.
- Continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. In the mixer, about 8 minutes.
- Roll the dough (leave it in a ball shape), set aside in the covered bowl until it doubles in size. About 45-60 minutes.
- Remove all the gas from the dough by kneading it in the center, forming it again. Set aside for 30-45 minutes.
- Mix the cinnamon powder and refined sugar, the amount may vary according to your taste. It will be used in the pan to sprinkle and spread on the dough.
- Grease a springform pan (24cm diameter by 8cm) with part of the melted butter, sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon mix.
- Divide the dough into 4 parts and each part into 16 smaller pieces. Roll each one into a ball and dip it in the sugar and cinnamon mixture.
- Distribute the balls in the pan, leaving the distribution even.
- Set aside for 20-25 minutes, the dough will rise and almost fill the empty spaces.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes at 180ºC, the surface dough should be well golden.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 3-4 minutes before unmolding.
- Spread the rest of the melted butter over the bread and sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon mix.
- Serve warm or room temperature.
