Cinnamon Monkey Bread

Name: Cinnamon Monkey Bread
Ingredients: 300 ml milk; 80 g sugar; 50 g butter; 500-600 g flour; 2 tsp vanilla sugar; 2 tsp dry yeast (instant); 1 tsp salt; 100 g sugar; 50 g butter; 4 tsp cinnamon; chocolate, raisins; nuts, berries

Monkey bread is a yeast bread, most often sweet, though savory versions exist as well. It is shaped into small dough balls. In terms of flavor, it tastes like a sweet cinnamon roll. This bread originates from America, where recipes for it first appeared back in the 1950s. The origin of the name isn't known for certain — it may be because you eat it with your hands, pulling off pieces one at a time, or because the bread's appearance resembles the fruit of a certain tree that monkeys love.

Ingredients:

300 ml milk
80 g sugar
50 g butter
500-600 g flour
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 tsp dry yeast (instant)
1 tsp salt
Also:
100 g sugar
50 g butter
4 tsp cinnamon
Optional:
chocolate, raisins
nuts, berries

How to cook cinnamon monkey bread

Warm the milk slightly (to about 40°C / 104°F).

Add the sugar, vanilla sugar, and butter cut into pieces. Stir until dissolved.

Sift the flour and mix it with the yeast and salt. Add the flour to the milk in batches, stirring with a spoon each time.

Finish kneading the dough on a work surface. The dough should be soft and not too dense.

Return the dough to the bowl and place it somewhere warm (I set the bowl in a pot of warm water). Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap.

Leave for 1–2 hours, or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Melt the butter.

Mix the sugar with the cinnamon.

Prepare your pan. A Bundt pan works best for baking this bread, as it helps it bake through evenly. If you don't have one, you can place an empty can of peas or corn in the center of a regular round pan. Grease the pan well with butter and dust it with the cinnamon sugar.

Pinch off pieces of dough and roll them into small balls (roughly the size of a walnut).

Inside some of the balls I tucked a piece of chocolate, in others I put raisins, and the rest I left plain.

Dip the dough balls in the melted butter.

Then roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Arrange them in the pan, leaving a little space between the balls.

Let rest for 30–40 minutes so the dough can rise a bit more. Then place the pan in an oven preheated to 200°C (400°F) and bake for about 30–40 minutes.