Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Sweet Monkey Bread

I love to cook and bake; I love to experiment in the kitchen, but most recipes don't have a fun little story behind them like this one does: Monkey Bread. So months ago there was a string of women who came to my work all within a two week period and were asking for monkey bread. I had never heard of such a thing before and the way they explained it it sounded like a cinnamon roll to me. I thought perhaps they had heard of some new awesome gluten free product and I went into research mode. Then a week later one of my favorite customers at my job came in and told me she was the one behind the monkey bread thing. She moved away and in honor of her I had to make monkey bread. This week I finally got around to it.

While researching monkey bread I discovered that this bread dish can be made sweet or savory, and also can go by another name- "bubble bread," and that was one of my favorite side dishes my mom made before I went gluten free, her savory bubble bread. Knowing all that I know now, from now on there will be sweet monkey bread, and savory bubble bread...this time around I made sweet monkey bread. And be cautious, this is dangerously delicious!











Ingredients

Yeast Mixture
2/3 cup warm milk (I used original Almond Breeze)
1 Tsp white sugar
1 packet yeast (this is approximately 2 tsp)

Bread Mixture
1 Tbsp white sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup garbanzo and fava flour
1 cup Tom Sawyer Flour (if not using this blend you can use 1/2 cup rice flour, 1/2 potato flour, plus 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum)

Topping:
1 stick of butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup pecans

Directions:
1. Combine milk, 1 tsp sugar and yeast. Set aside to proof.
2. In a new bowl, beat the eggs, oil, vinegar, sugar, and vanilla until completely combined.
3. Add in the rest of the bread ingredients: yeast mixture, flours, etc.
4. In two other small bowls, melt the butter in one, and combine the remaining topping ingredients in the other: brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon.
5. Grease whatever shape pan you're using.
6. Working one at a time, form dough into small balls, about an inch in diameter, then drop into the melted butter (I highly suggest using a cookie scooper or mini ice cream scooper)
7. Using a slotted spoon, remove ball from butter and drop into the bowl of cinnamon-sugar.
8. Roll each ball around in the cinnamon sugar, then again using a slotted spoon, remove from sugar bowl and place in baking pan.
9. Repeat until all dough is used up, piling the dough balls next to and on top of one another.
10. If you make your monkey bread layers, sprinkle each layer with some pecans.
11. Drizzle leftover butter and sugar over the top once you've used all the dough.
12. Let rise for about 45 minutes in a warm place.
13. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, based on what size/shape pan you're using.

3 comments:

Olinda said...

Well, slap my face and call me a monkey! I haven't seen this since my early 20's! I never thought of it as gluten free...Great! Something new..but old, to try! It was good if I remember right. A bunch of girls and I would get together occasionally and I remember one girl brought it ready to bake in the pan. It was a bunch-o-balls with cinnamon all over it and butter. It was our desert before going out. All of us laughed about eating monkey's balls. Ah the memories.

Jen said...

Oh my gosh, I made the blog! :) Thanks for the great recipe, I'm going to share it with my old co-workers. I miss you guys and the store. I'll be visiting in October, so I'll stock up!

Debbie said...

Yeah...Hi Jen....glad to see you still read the blog. :-) Also found that you add an icing to the top, this is a great cinnamon roll substitute. And I plain to make a savory edition of this soon.