You never forget your first monkey bread experience. The scent of freshly baked bread, the sweet, sticky caramel-like sauce, the fun, pull-apart method of eating it…there really are few things more enjoyable for a breakfast snack. My first monkey bread was baked by my friend Natalie towards the end of high school, and you would think she busted out a croque en bouche or something, because I was floored. This was impressive breakfast eating. This was AWESOME. I got into my head that Memorial Day weekend was the perfect occasion for me to bust out my own monkey bread. What I remembered from my first monkey bread experience was that you put it together the night before and bake it the next morning. In other words, it was lazy-ass cooking at it’s finest, and I was down for that. After reading over several recipes, I realized that there were two main methods used to make monkey bread: canned biscuit dough or make the bread from scratch. I can’t Sandra Lee-it. I feel guilty using canned biscuit dough when I know how to make it from scratch, so I decided to go the homemade bread route. Then I realized all of recipes that made the bread from scratch required 2-3 of work BEFORE you let it sit overnight, then another hour of rising in the morning before you could bake it! Even Nancy Regan’s famous same-day recipe has a solid 1 1/2 hours of rise time before you can assemble the damn thing. I was pissed–I had been lazy-ass recipe duped. And I had already bought all the ingredients by the time I figured this out, and I had pumped up my stomach with thoughts of eat monkey bread, so I was stuck. Which meant this monkey bread didn’t get assembled until Sunday night. Hey, I like to support our troops by being lazy when they can’t. I decided to go with another Alton Brown recipe, but made some adjustments of my own. Like when I realized halfway into the recipe that I didn’t own a bundt pan? I grabbed my medium-sized nonstick pot that was oven proof, wrapped foil around a ramekin, and place it in the center of the pot. My Macgiver-like instincts yielded an instant, only mildly ghetto bundt pan that worked like a charm.
I also left out of the rosemary for a more traditional cinnamon. And if you read my last bread post on AB, I made sure to cut his recipe in half, because sure enough, the reviews of his recipe online revealed that the bastard had really given a recipe for TWO monkey breads, not one. Alton Brown, making America a little fatter two monkey breads at a time. My only real complaint was that the sugar-butter mixture I heated together for the topping never really came together–the brown sugar remained grainy and separated from the butter, and when the bread was done, it had more of a sugar glaze than a caramel-y sauce. Not bad, just not what I expected. I was pretty happy with my first monkey bread, but I might need to search for a new recipe, one that lets me make the bread from scratch without requiring four hours of rising time the night before and after. ********************************************** My adaptation of Alton Brown?s Overnight Monkey Bread Original recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/overnight-monkey-bread-recipe/index.html Dough: ? 2 large egg yolks, room temperature ? 1/2 large whole egg, room temperature ? 1 ounces sugar , approximately 1/8 cup ? 1.5 ounces unsalted butter, melted, approximately 3 tablespoons ? 3 ounces buttermilk, room temperature ? 10 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 2 cups, plus additional for dusting ? 1/2 package instant dry yeast, approximately 1 1/8 teaspoons ? 1/2 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt ? Vegetable oil or cooking spray Topping: ? 4 ounces unsalted butter, approximately 8 tablespoons ? 4 ounces light brown sugar, approximately 1/2 cup packed ? ? teaspoon ground cinnamon ? 1.5 ounces raisins Coating: ? 1 1/4 ounces unsalted butter, melted, approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons Directions For the dough: in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg yolks, whole egg, sugar, butter and buttermilk. Add approximately 1 cups of the flour along with the yeast and salt; whisk until moistened and combined. Remove the whisk attachment and replace with a dough hook. Add all but 1/4 cup & 1/8 cup of the remaining flour and knead on low speed for 5 minutes. Check the consistency of the dough and add more flour if necessary; the dough should feel soft and moist but not sticky. Knead on low speed 5 minutes more or until the dough clears the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface; knead by hand about 30 seconds. Lightly oil a large bowl. Transfer the dough to the bowl, lightly oil the top of the dough, cover and let double in volume, 2 to 2 1/2 hours (might be shorter since I cut the recipe in half). In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the middle section of ingredients, including unsalted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Pour half of the topping into the bottom of the bundt pan and set aside. Cover and store the other half of the topping in the refrigerator until the next morning. Place the melted butter for the coating in a medium shallow bowl and stir to combine. Once the dough has risen, turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Portion the dough into 1-ounce pieces; roll each piece into a ball. (You should have approximately 18 balls.) Roll the balls in the melted butter. Place the balls in the bundt pan (I sprayed mine with oil just in case). Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight or up to 16 hours. Remove the bread from the refrigerator and place in an oven that is turned off. Fill a shallow pan 2/3-full of boiling water and set on the rack below the bread. Close the oven and let the bread rise until slightly puffy looking, 20 to 30 minutes. Once the bread has risen, remove it and the shallow pan of water from the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once the oven is ready, place the bread on the middle rack and bake until slightly golden on top, approximately 25 to 30 minutes. Place the remaining topping in a small saucepan and set over medium heat. Reheat until the mixture is pourable, approximately 5 minutes. Fifteen minutes into baking, pour the remaining topping over the bread, and finish cooking. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then invert onto a platter or cutting board. Serve immediately.
