Monkey Bread

                Today I will talk about something wonderful. And that is Monkey Bread. Basically, Monkey Bread is a yeast dough made into small balls that are rolled into a cinnamon-sugar mixture, piled in a pan, and drizzled with oil. When it is done baking, you have a delicious pull-apart, cinnamony yumminess.

                I made it for the first time when I was making challah a few months ago and had too much challah dough. You see, my freezer is quite small, so I do not have room to store the 8 challah that my 7-cup of flour recipe makes. So I turned half of the dough into challah, and the other half had to serve another purpose. I had been reading about Monkey Bread for a long time, and I thought it was time.

                Last night was actually my third attempt at Monkey Bread. I made my challah dough recipe, which is the first recipe in Shira Wiener and Ayelet Yifrach’s The Taste of Challah. It is recipe that produces an incredibly fluffy challah….maybe too fluffy as you will soon see. I left my braided challahs and prepared Monkey Bread on my counter to rise while I went to the supermarket. When I returned, my Monkey Bread was humongous! It had doubled in size, and some of the cinnamon-sugar rolled balls had rolled off of the loaf and onto the counter and floor! Once it was in the oven and rising a bit more from the heat, more cinnamon-sugar balls rolled off and landed on the bottom of the oven. (One of which is still there—it was too stuck to pry off while the oven was hot!) But it baked beautifully, and I have one report that it tastes good. My first hand report is upcoming—I had already brushed my teeth by the time it was ready, and who wants to brush their teeth twice in one evening??

humongous Monkey Bread after rising

you can see the runaway cinnamon-sugar balls on the counter, challah pan, and floor