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Monkey Spiced Bread

food
5
food
115 mins
bread
side dish
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by Natasha
Published on 20 December 2022
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Spiced monkey bread is made of small pieces of soft, sweet and sticky brioche that’s baked in one pan. It’s sprinkled with spiced sugar and glazed with a caramel topping. The term “monkey bread” is named because it’s eaten by pulling the pieces apart with your fingers, like how a monkey would eat it. Other names include pull-apart bread, plucking cake and bubble bread as a way to describe what this bread is but of course the most commonly used one is still monkey bread.

ORIGIN OF MONKEY BREAD

The history of monkey bread goes all the way to the 1880s. Hungarian immigrants have brought this dish to the United States and ever since, bakers in the United States have been making variations and recreating their own versions.

MONKEY SPICED BREAD

monkey spiced bread recipe (2).jpg Traditional monkey bread is usually just flavoured with cinnamon but I decided to add another spice that compliments the cinnamon flavours even more, nutmeg.

Nutmeg brings out the nuttiness while cinnamon adds a more warmth and spice flavour to the sweet, indulging bread. The spiced monkey bread is a brioche type of bread that’s crispy and moist on the inside. It’s buttery and rich in flavour, the perfect type of bread that absorbs the spices very well.

HOW TO SERVE THE MONKEY SPICED BREAD

The best way to eat spiced monkey bread is when it’s still hot and fresh from the oven. It’s not meant to be served cold so make sure to finish this while it’s still warm.

The point of this monkey bread being shaped by small balls of dough is to be served to share as finger food/snacks. So try to restrain yourself from not eating this whole thing by yourself because it can be quite addicting! So grab your spatula and let’s get to baking!

Some tips that might be useful:

  • Make the glaze 5 minutes before baking time.
  • You can use any type of cake mould, most people use bundt cake moulds, but you can always use a round cake mould or a bread pan like me.

Monkey Spiced Bread

by Natasha
servings
4 people
prep time
90 mins
dish type
Bread
cook time
25 mins
course
Side dish
total time
115 mins

ingredients

  • for the dough

    • 45 gramunsalted butter(in a room temperature, for the dough)
    • 50 mlmilk
    • 1.13 tspyeast
    • 205 grambread flour
    • 1.25 tbspbrown sugar(for the dough)
    • 0.5 tspsalt
    • 2 pc(s)egg
    • 15 gramunsalted butter(as needed, in a room temperature, for greasing)

  • for the spiced sugar topping

    • 10 grambrown sugar
    • 0.13 tspground nutmeg
    • 0.13 tspground cinnamon

  • for caramel glaze

    • 75 grambrown sugar
    • 50 gramunsalted butter
    • 0.13 tspground cinnamon
    • 0.13 tspground nutmeg

instructions

Making the dough

  1. Heat up the milk in the microwave at 800 watts for 10 seconds.
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  2. Add yeast and brown sugar (for the dough) to the milk and stir until fully combined. Let it sit for 5 minutes until you see the yeast has risen.
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  3. In a large bowl, add bread flour and salt and mix it well.
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  4. Combine the proofed yeast mixture and eggs together. These will be the wet ingredients.
  5. Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of flour and salt. Mix everything with a spatula until a dough forms.
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  6. Add the unsalted butter (for the dough) and knead it to the dough until well incorporated.
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  7. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and let it rest for 10 minutes.
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  8. Place dough on a work surface and knead it until smooth.
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  9. Brush some unsalted butter (for greasing) onto a clean bowl.
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  10. Place dough into the greased bowl and cover with cling wrap. Let the dough rest for 1 hour.
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Make the spiced sugar topping

  1. In a bowl, add brown sugar (for topping), ground cinnamon (for topping) and ground nutmeg (for topping). Mix everything until completely homogenous.
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  2. Grease the baking pan with unsalted butter (for greasing).
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Continue working on the dough

  1. Degas the dough by punching it lightly with your hands. Shape into a ball.
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  2. Cut and weigh the dough into 28 grams each.
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  3. Shape each dough into balls.
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  4. Roll each dough ball in the spiced sugar topping.
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  5. Place each dough in the baking pan while having about 1cm space in between each dough.
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  6. Cover the dough with cling wrap and let it rise for 35 minutes.
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Make the caramel glaze

  1. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar (for the glaze), ground nutmeg (for the glaze), ground cinnamon (for the glaze) and unsalted butter (for the glaze).
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  2. Place the saucepan onto a stove and turn the heat on medium. Let the mixture come to a simmer and turn the heat off.
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Preparation to bake the bread

  1. Preheat the oven to 175 C.
  2. Pour the hot glaze onto the dough, spreading it out as evenly as possible.
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  3. Bake the bread for 30 minutes or until it’s golden brown.
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  4. While it’s fresh out of the oven, you can serve this immediately and enjoy!
bread
side dish
bread
spicy
loaf
sweet
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Natasha
Bake it till you make it!