How to Make Chef John's Monkey Bread

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Get ready for a sweet and sticky treat with Chef John's classic monkey bread recipe! This pull-apart bread in this video is coated in a rich, buttery cinnamon-sugar glaze, making each bite irresistibly gooey and flavorful. Perfect for breakfast, brunch, or dessert, this monkey bread is a crowd-pleaser that’s surprisingly easy to make.

Transcript

00:00Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with monkey bread.

00:08That's right, this holiday themed monkey bread is studded with just the right amount of cranberry

00:12and walnut.

00:13And it is so delicious and addictive, it will turn the most civilized group into a troupe

00:18of very unruly simians.

00:20Oh yeah, everybody thinks they have good table manners until they're around monkey bread.

00:24And to get started, we'll put together a very easy to make dough, which begins with some

00:29warm milk.

00:30All right, something about 105 degrees would be perfect.

00:34And then what we'll do is sprinkle over one packet of dry active yeast, and we will let

00:38that sit and bloom for about 10 to 15 minutes before we add in the rest of our ingredients,

00:43which because this is a sweet dough, will include some sugar, although not as much as

00:48most recipes, and you'll see why later.

00:51We'll also need a generous amount of melted butter, which by the way, makes this dough

00:54very easy to work with.

00:56And then we'll follow that with one beaten egg, and then we'll finish up with some all

01:00purpose flour, as well as some salt of course.

01:04And that's it, once everything's together, we'll place that on our stand mixer, and we'll

01:08use the dough hook attachment to start kneading this on the second speed.

01:13But once it all comes together, for this dough I like to reduce it down to the first speed,

01:18since it seems to knead a little bit better at the slower setting, but that kind of thing

01:22depends on the type of dough, and the amount of dough, so you put that on whatever setting

01:26you think's going to get the job done.

01:29And what we'll do is knead that for about 5 to 7 minutes, or until our dough is beautifully

01:33smooth and fairly elastic.

01:36And yes, you can do this by hand, but you're going to have to knead it probably about 10

01:39to 12 minutes.

01:41And then once we feel like that's kneaded enough, we will stop and add our chopped walnuts

01:44and dried cranberries, and we'll turn our mixer back on and knead that for another minute

01:49or two, or until everything's been evenly distributed.

01:53Whoops, don't forget to lock the arm.

01:56There we go.

01:57Oh, and hold on for a second, we have a couple of rogue cranberries on top of the dough hook,

02:02so let me go ahead and brush those off, since watching those on top would bother a lot of

02:06people, like me.

02:08And that's it, once our nuts and fruits are mixed in, we will stop and take this off the

02:11mixer, and I'm going to go ahead and transfer that onto the work surface, so you can get

02:16a better look at this gorgeous texture, which is very soft, and kind of sticky, but thanks

02:22to the butter, not the kind of stickiness that actually sticks to your fingers.

02:26So this really is a very pleasant dough to work with, and what we'll do is transfer that

02:30back into a lightly buttered bowl, and yes, I'm just going to use the same bowl I mixed

02:35it in.

02:36And what we'll do is cover that, and let it rise until it's just about doubled, which

02:40is probably going to take about an hour and a half or so.

02:43And while we're waiting, we can mix up our cinnamon sugar, which is done by mixing cinnamon

02:47in sugar, and we'll be using the classic age-old ratio of one cup of sugar to one tablespoon

02:53of cinnamon.

02:55Once we have that mixed up, we'll set it aside until we need it, and we'll head back over

02:58and check our dough, which like I said, should just about double, and we can test it by poking

03:03it with our fingers, and if the dough springs back, it's not ready yet.

03:07But that looked and felt perfect, so what we'll do at this point is grease our work

03:11surface with a little bit of butter, and we will transfer our dough on top, and then

03:16attempt to press and stretch it out into a square that's roughly 15 by 15 inches, although

03:22the exact size really does not matter.

03:25As long as you end up with some kind of square, and the dough has been pressed out into an

03:29even layer, it is going to work great for the next step, since the only reason we're

03:33bothering with a square is so we can cut this into 64 relatively even pieces.

03:39Now before we get to that step, let's go ahead and brush the surface with some melted

03:43butter, or in my case, softened butter, which was melted, but my kitchen's freezing, so

03:49it's sort of solidified, but that's fine, as long as you can spread it over, it's going

03:53to work.

03:54And then once the top is buttered, we'll take a pizza cutter, and we will cut this into

03:58eight columns by eight rows to give us 64 pieces, and no, they do not all have to be

04:05exactly the same size, which is a good thing, because that would be impossible.

04:10And then as the old saying goes, before you can make monkey bread, you've got to make

04:14monkey balls, so what we'll do is take each portion of dough, and quickly roll it into

04:20a ball, and then we'll grab our cinnamon sugar, and toss it in that, since we want every one

04:25of these pieces of dough to be thoroughly coated with the cinnamon sugar before it goes

04:29into our pan.

04:30And of course, we can do five or six or seven at a time.

04:34And once those are set, we will carefully transfer them into a very, very generously

04:39buttered bun pan, or really any pan that fits this amount of dough will work, but the bun

04:44pan does make for a very nice presentation, and we can be a little bit careful on that

04:48first circle that goes along the bottom, but once the bottom's covered, we can pretty much

04:52just put these in randomly, being careful not to press and smash the dough too much.

04:57Alright, as you'll see, once this proofs, all those balls of dough are going to kind

05:00of puff up and push into each other, so we do not want things firmly packed at this point.

05:06And once our bun pan's been monkey balled, we'll go ahead and cover that back up, and

05:10we will let this proof for about 30 to 35 minutes.

05:14And while we're waiting, we can make our butter and sugar mixture that we're going to pour

05:17on the top before we bake this, and we'll do that by melting a touch of butter over

05:21medium heat, and once it's almost melted, we'll toss in our brown sugar, and we will

05:26give it a stir, and we'll wait for the mixture to just start bubbling, oh and don't be nervous,

05:32this is one of those things that does not look good, until it does.

05:36So just leave it on medium, stirring occasionally, until you see it start to bubble, at which

05:41point we'll turn off the heat, and if we're using it, we'll toss in a little bit of orange

05:45zest, which I think pairs beautifully with these other flavors, and with the heat off,

05:49we will keep whisking, until we form what looks like a very nice smooth caramel sauce.

05:54And by the way, even though I didn't use his recipe for monkey bread, I did borrow this

05:58mixture from my good friend who I've never met, John Cannell from Preppy Kitchen, so

06:03if you run into him, tell him I said thanks.

06:06And that's it, once our sauce is set, we'll go back and check our pan, which after about

06:1035 minutes should look like this, and then what we'll do is take that mixture we just

06:15made, and pour it evenly over the top, attempting to coat each and every ball on the surface,

06:21but that's not where that sugar butter mixture is going to stay.

06:23Alright, as this bakes, it's going to kind of seep down in, and coat everything with

06:27its sweet buttery goodness, which is why I do not like to put too much sugar in the dough.

06:33And that's it, once that's been applied, this is ready to transfer into the center of a

06:37350 degree oven, for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until it's fully puffed up, and the top

06:43is lightly browned, and it looks like this.

06:47Oh yes, that is amazing looking, and that part's the bottom we're not even going to

06:51see.

06:52And then what we need to do here, is let this rest for exactly 10 minutes, during which

06:57time it's going to kind of sink down into the pan a little bit.

07:00And after 10 minutes, we'll put a plate over the top, and we will carefully turn it over,

07:05and if you're lucky, it's going to fall right out, like mine did.

07:09But if it doesn't, just give it a few taps, and it will come out.

07:12And we'll carefully remove the pan, to reveal one of the most beautiful and interesting

07:16sights in all of baking.

07:19And then we should really let this cool down until it's just barely warm, or room temp

07:22before we eat it.

07:24But as usual, that's going to be up to you.

07:26I mean, you are after all the curious George, of when to gorge.

07:30And I usually always let these kind of things cool, but this time I could not.

07:35I went full monkey, and pulled a piece right off, which yes, kind of burned my fingers,

07:39but it was totally worth it, since that my friends, truly was amazing.

07:44And because we did not add a ton of sugar to the dough, for me this has the perfect

07:47level of sweetness.

07:49And even though they're optional, and you don't have to put them in at all, those little

07:53bits of walnut, and jewels of cranberry, I think really do elevate this, and make it

07:58much more holiday appropriate.

08:00And if you do put this out on the table, whether it's breakfast, or brunch, or after dinner

08:05for dessert, at a Thanksgiving gathering, or Christmas, or something like that, as I

08:10touched on in the intro, you will fully understand how this got the name Monkey Bread.

08:16Although some people think it was named after a puzzle, but that explanation is not as fun.

08:21But anyway, no matter how this got it's name, it is a delicious, highly addictive, fairly

08:26easy and gorgeous recipe, and I really do hope you give it a try soon.

08:32So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much

08:36more info as usual, and as always, enjoy!

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