Orange Scented Monkey Bread Recipes

Hi everyone, I hope all of you had a wonderful New Year celebration. Year 2010 was a pretty interesting year for me. Many things happened, some good and some not so good. But it was over and done with and I am looking forward to new 2011. Like all the past years I am not going to make any resolutions or goals. I know myself; I will make resolutions on January 1st and abandons it by January 8th so why bother. Instead, I am going to make list of things that I would like to do. Anyway, thank you all for visiting, support and also taking the time to comment. I really appreciate all your encouraging words.

Let start of the New Year with something gooey and sweet. I know, what a name for something so deliciously good, right. I tried to find the origin of the name ‘monkey bread’ and I can't really find the definitive background of it. I baked this for our breakfast and share some with our neighbor. We love this bread especially the taste of orange, cinnamon and brown sugar. The flavors are perfectly blended into the sweet and sticky buns. Best of all we get to pull the pieces apart when we eat it.

Ingredients:
Dough recipe adapted from: Smitten Kitchen

3 tbsp butter - melted
1 cup milk, warm (around 110 degrees F)
1/3 cup water, warm (also around 110 degrees F)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 package or 2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeas
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
1 teaspoons table salt
1/2 cup of raisins - optional

Cinnamon Sugar Coating

3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp orange zest

Brown Sugar Syrup

1/2 cup dark brown sugar
4 tbsp orange juice
4 tbsp butter

1. Greased a Bundt pan generously with butter. In a large measuring cup, mix together milk, water, melted butter, sugar and yeast. Mix flour and salt in standing mixer fitted with dough hook. Turn machine to low and slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until dough is shiny and smooth, 6 to 7 minutes.
2. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball. Oil large bowl, place dough in bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm area until dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes.
3. While the dough is rising, get ready the coating mix. Mix brown sugar, orange zest and cinnamon together in a Ziploc bag. Set aside.
4. To form the bread: Gently remove the dough from the bowl, and pat into a rough 8-inch square. Using a bench scraper or knife, cut dough into 64 pieces. Drop half of the cut pieces of dough into the Ziploc bag. Toss it around until the dough is well coated with cinnamon mix.

5. Remove the dough and layer the dough into the Bundt pan. Scatter some of the raisins around it. Do the same to the rest of the dough. Cover the Bundt pan with a plastic wrap and let it rest at a warm place until double in size.
6. In the meantime get ready the brown sugar syrup. Combined all the ingredients in a small saucepan, slowly melt the butter and brown sugar and bring it up to a boil. Let it cool down slightly.
7. Heat up the oven to 350 degree F. Drizzle the brown sugar syrup into the Bundt pan and bake for 40-45 minutes until brown and bubbly around the edges. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, and then turn out onto a platter. Allows to cool about 10 minutes before devour into it.

Note: Because of our cold temperature I made the dough the night before and let it raise overnight. You can omit the raisins or replace with different type of nuts. If the bread get too dark before it is done, just cover it with some foil and continue to bake.