Monkey Breads: It's so much fun to eat it with your friends!

There are some recipes, which I always want to make, ^^, but somehow I didn't make it. Like this monkey bread. There are many recipes in the book, and I read about it a long time ago.

Monkey Breads

It's a kind of sweet and sticky bread, the dough will be divided into small pieces and covered with nut and sugar, then baked. When eating, people will pull the small bread out of the big loaf (like the way monkey eats food), that why this bread is called monkey bread (this is not only the story about the name, some people said that the bread looks like monkey puzzle tree). But for me I prefer the first story, hehe, because when eating this bread, esp. when a lot of people around, you will have to pull the small pieces of bread and prevent other people to eat more than you, ^^. 
 This dough is very easy to knead, with a bit of cake flour, the texture of the dough for this bread is soft but not very sweet, so when you cover it with sweet and nutty mixture it will be very delicious, haha. For the pan, tube pan make it cook thoroughly (because center of the pan will act like the heating core), but if you don't have tube pan, cover a long piece of cardboard with aluminium foil and roll into a cylinder and place in the round pan instead. I think the tube pan with removable bottom is great for this job because it will be easier to remove the bread out of the pan while it still hot. Serve it piping hot from the oven or let it cool and warm it slightly before serving, may I suggest a cup of coffee it will be very good companion. 

Monkey Breads

Makes 1 (18cm tube pan)

240g ............................... Bread flour
60g .................................. Cake flour
5g ..................................... Instant yeast
20g .................................. Granulated sugar
4g ..................................... Salt
1 ....................................... Egg yolk
175g ................................. Water
20g ................................... Butter


40g ................................... melted butter
40g ................................... Walnut
70g ................................... Light brown sugar
1 ........................................ Egg white

 Mix together egg yolk and water.

Put the flours, sugar and yeast in a bowl, whisk to combine, add and salt whisk again. Pour the egg and water mixture into the bowl.

Use large spoon (or pastry scraper) to mix everything together, and knead briefly to bring all the ingredients together (add more water if the dough's too dry).

Take the dough out of the bowl and knead, you will see the dough will be elastic after about 2 minutes.

 Add the butter and knead by using the heel of your hands to compress and push the dough away from you, then fold it back over itself. Give the dough a little turn and repeat. Put the weight of your body into the motion and get into a rhythm. Keep folding over and compressing the dough. Knead for 10-15 minutes or until the dough is soft, pliable, smooth and slightly shiny, almost satiny.

See how to knead bread, here.
Put the dough into a light buttered bowl. Let the dough rise in a warm place until double in size (can be 1 hour or 1 hour and a half check often depend on the temperature).

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Roast the walnut for 10minutes, until fragrance, let it cool.

Put the nut and light brown sugar into the food processor and process until powdery.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Butter the tube pan (if you have the one with removable bottom will make your life easier).

Take the dough out of the bowl, deflate by touch it lightly.

Cut the dough into 30 pieces (they will be small) roll into balls.

Dip the ball into melted butter, nut mixture and egg white.

Then place them in prepared pan.
Let the dough rise until almost double in size, about 40-50 minutes 
When the dough ready, put into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. If the top of the bread is too brown before the bread is done, cover it with an aluminium foil.

Let the rest in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack.
Or, serve piping hot from the oven, it will be fun to eat ^^.

Monkey Breads: It's so much fun to eat it with your friends!