Homemade Cinnamon Bun Monkey Bread with Cinnamon Caramel
Servings: 10 portions
Equipment
- Bundt pan (see note 3)
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1 egg (medium)
- 50g (3½ tbs) butter (chopped into small pieces)
- 250ml (1 cup) milk
- 450-500g (3¾ - 4 cups) spelt flour (see note 1)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 7g (2¼ tsp) yeast (see note 2)
Cinnamon Bun Filling:
- 50g (3½ tbs) butter (very soft)
- 90g (½ cup) brown sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
Cinnamon Caramel:
- 50g (¼ cup) brown sugar
- 30g (2 tbsp) butter
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Vanilla Drizzle:
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- icing / confectioners' / powdered sugar (as much as needed)
Instructions
DOUGH (both methods):
- Add the egg, butter and milk to your stand mixer bowl or bread machine pan.
- Add 450g (3¾ cups) flour, along with the other dried ingredients.
Bread Machine:
- Set your machine to make the dough.
- When the dough is ready, pour out onto a floured surface and form into a rough ball. The dough will still be a little sticky, but just incorporate as much additional flour as you need.
Stand Mixer:
- Set your mixer going, and mix until all the ingredients are fairly well combined (the butter will still be a little chunky, and that's fine).
- Gradually add more flour as (and when) needed, until your dough is still a little tacky, but starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Switch to your bread hook (if you have one) and knead for about five minutes.
- Cover and proof until doubled in size.
- When the dough is ready, pour out onto a floured surface and form into a rough ball.
CINNAMON CARAMEL:
- Heat the three caramel ingredients together in a small pan.
- Wait until it reaches a rolling boil, then turn down the heat a little and stir continuously for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool while you prepare the cinnamon buns.
CINNAMON BUN FILLING:
- Roll the dough out into a long rectangle, around 27cm x 42cm (10½" x 16"), with the longer end facing you. If it struggles against you a little, cover it and leave it to rest for five minutes.
- Spread the butter over the top of the dough with a brush or knife.
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and then sprinkle over the top of the butter layer. Move it around with your fingers to get a nice, even coverage and push it down slightly.
- Carefully, still with the longer edge facing you, roll the dough up fairly tightly, finishing off with the seam underneath.
- Cut the roll into 12-15 slices. Then, cut each slice into 2, 3 or 4 pieces (depending on the size of the slice). It doesn't matter how big the slices or pieces are, just make them fairly uniform in size so that they bake evenly.
ASSEMBLY:
- Pour half of your caramel mixture into the bottom of a bundt pan (see note 3).
- Layer your cinnamon bun pieces on top of the caramel, repeating until you have used all the dough pieces.
- Pre-heat the oven to 175℃ (350℉).
- Cover the bundt with a cloth and allow the dough to rest while the oven is heating.
- When ready, pour over the remaining caramel. If it has thickened up a lot, just add one more tablespoon of milk and quickly stir it in.
- Bake in the lower part of the oven for around 35-40 minutes. Check at around 30 minutes to make sure the top isn't browning too quickly (you might need to cover it with a piece of foil).
- When ready, remove from the oven and allow to cool for around 20 minutes.
- Turn out onto a wire rack or plate.
DRIZZLE:
- Pour two tablespoons of milk into a bowl.
- Add as much icing (powdered) sugar as needed to make a runny icing.
- Drizzle all over the monkey bread and eat while still warm. Enjoy!
Notes
I have converted grams to cups/ounces/tablespoons using online converters. Although I have no reason to believe they are inaccurate, please be aware that I have not made this recipe with imperial measurements.
- You can use all-purpose or even bread flour in place of the spelt. Just use the same measurements as specified.
- In Sweden we have something called dried yeast. It is used both in warm liquid to proof and also added directly to flour. I am aware that the US has two options for dried yeast, and I believe instant yeast is the most similar for the purpose of making this particular bread.
- You need to use a fairly large bundt pan for this recipe. A pan that can hold around 3 litres (12 cups) would work well. Alternatively, if you only have a small bundt pan, just halve all of the ingredients to make a smaller batch.
