Sticky monkey breads: Sweet and delicious!

 The good ingredient is the key for delicious food, I always believe in it.
That is why when I got this delicious pecan nut, I wanted to make something ^^. I really love the taste of pecan nut, it's nut only rich but there is a hint of bitterness (not in a bad way), to balance the taste of it. 
If you can remember, I have another Monkey Breads recipe in my blog with the story of why we call it monkey bread (you can read it here), this recipe is the monkey bread too, but with additional of sticky toffee mixture, so it turns into Sticky monkey breads. I made this recipe before but using 20 cm pan, but this time I use 22 cm pan instead. You can use the one that you have or if you want your bread to be sky high, use 20 cm, hehe, it's beautiful and delicious both way.
My favorite drink for this bread is Latte, the bitterness of coffee and sweetness from the milk, melt away this bread and make it a great breakfast for me.

 Sticky monkey breads

Make using 20 or 22 cm pan (see note in the recipe)

Dough
1/2 cup  ............................... Water
1/2 cup ................................ Whole milk
2 tsp ..................................... Instance yeast
50 g ...................................... Granulated sugar
60 g ...................................... Unsalted butter, melted
1 ............................................ Large egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp .............................. Vanilla extract
390 g .................................... All purpose flour
3/4 tsp ................................. Salt

Sticky toffee
120 g .................................... Pecan
115 g .................................... Unsalted butter (A)
215 g ................................... Brown sugar 
3/4 cup ............................... Whipping cream
1 tsp .................................... Vanilla extract
1tsp ..................................... Lemon juice
1/8 tsp ................................ Salt
Rolling
65g ...................................... Unsalted butter (B)
50 -70 g .............................. Granulated sugar

 Mix together melted butter, egg yolk, and milk.

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

Use large spoon (or pastry scraper) to mix everything together, and knead briefly to bring all the ingredients together.

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

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 5-10 minutes or until the dough is soft, pliable and smooth. 

See how to knead bread, here.

Put the dough into a light buttered bowl and cover with plastic warp. 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).

 After the first raising, refrigerate the dough for 4 hours (or over night).

Bake the pecans in 180°C. preheat oven for 8 minutes or until fragrance, then coarsely chop the nut.
Put the butter (A) in medium sauce pan and place over medium heat, let the butter melt then add the brown sugar and whipping cream, let it simmer until thick (it will be 4-6 minutes).
Pour the lemon juice, salt and vanilla into the saucepan with pecan, stir until combine, then take the saucepan out of the heat. Let it cool completely.
Assemble:
Line the base and side of the pan with baking paper.
Pour 1/2 cup of the sticky toffee mixture into the base of the pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut into 2.5 cm piece and roll each piece into a ball.
Melt 65 g of butter (Butter (B)), and dip the ball into the melted butter then roll in the granulated sugar and place in the prepared pan in single layer, pour 1/2 cup of the sticky toffee over the first layer. Repeat with the remaining dough. Reserve 1 cup of sticky toffee for spreading over the top of the bread after baking.
Let the dough rise until almost double in size.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a thermometer insert in the center should register 80 °C. While baking if the top of the bread become dark cover it with aluminium foil.
Remove the bread from the oven and spread the sticky toffee on top, let the bread cool completely before eating. 
Note: If using 20 cm pan, the bread will be high, you will need at least 8 cm high pan or using the baking paper for supporting the bread, and the baking time will be 55 minutes. 

Sticky monkey breads: Sweet and delicious!