Homemade Monkey Bread - What's better than sweet, pull apart bread, flavored with butter and coated with cinnamon sugar? A delicious breakfast treat! This recipe can be prepared ahead!* Bake in a 12 -15 cup capacity bundt pan.
In a bowl of your standing mixer, add milk and sugar and sprinkle in the yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes while you are getting everything else ready.
Add about half of the flour, the eggs, oil, and lemon juice or apple cider vinegar into the bowl with the yeast mixture. Start the machine and mix on medium high speed until it's smooth like a batter. About 1 - 2 minutes. You can also do this by hand using a dough whisk or regular whisk.
Once you have a batter-like mixture, add the remaining flour and the salt into the bowl and knead for 10 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky but come away clean from the mixing bowl.
Grease a bowl with about a teaspoon of oil.
Place the dough into a greased bowl or container and cover with plastic wrap or the container lid. I use tall plastic lidded containers that are perfect for dough. Let rise for 1 hour. OR...If you are making these ahead, place the dough in the refrigerator overnight. It will rise slowly. Remove from refrigerator and continue with recipe.
Melt the butter in a bowl and set aside.
In another bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugars and set aside.
Flatten dough gently to remove excess air bubbles.
Pull apart or cut pieces of dough about an 2 inches in size. I usually get 48 pieces of dough. I don't bother to roll the dough into balls and just dip as is but you can roll each one into balls for a uniform look.
Dip each ball of dough into the melted butter to coat.
Roll each piece into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Make sure it's all coated. I use a fork to toss them in the sugar and to scoop them up. The excess sugar falls through the tines of the fork. Arrange the balls in the bundt pan as you go.
Combine remaining melted butter and sugar and pour over the top of the dough evenly. Get it in between the balls and it will melt beautifully coating them when baking.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes in a warm draft free place.
Postition the oven rack one position below the center to prevent the top of the monkey bread from getting too dark. Preheat oven to 350°.
Place bundt pan on a foil lined baking sheet to catch any possible drips and bake for about 40 - 45 minutes but check after 40. It should look golden brown on top with no doughy spots.
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes then invert onto serving plate. Cool for at least 30 minutes, if you can, before eating. If drizzling with icing, make sure monkey bread is completely cool or the icing will melt.
Making the icing:
Combine confectioners' sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. If too thick, add the second tablespoon. Drizzle over cooled monkey bread.
Serve the monkey bread by pulling each piece and devouring it. You can also slice it but that may take away from the fun. Enjoy.
Notes
*This can be done a day ahead. I made this at 3pm and didn't take out of fridge until 11am next day for second rise and it was just as delicious. If making a day ahead, you can reduce the amount of yeast from 1 tablespoon to 1 teaspoon.**You can warm eggs by placing them in warm water for a few minutes.