Monkey Bread

Please: instructions for those who do have a mixer with paddle attachment . I'm sort of up cook creek without a paddle.

UM, I don't think the instruction to taste the burning caramel sauce to adjust for salt and cream is a good one...

I'm no expert, but here's what I would do: 1. Mix together the ingredients in Step 1. 2. Put 5 cups flour in the biggest bowl you have. Make a well in the middle. Pour in all of Step 1 ingredients. Stir with a big spoon until it's really thick, then turn out on a floured table and knead by hand, adding more flour if needed, until it is stiff and slightly tacky. Continue from there. 3. Ssh! The cake doesn't know that you don't have a paddle attachment! Our secret!

Fun and satisfying to make, very hyggeligt and so good! 1. Go straight to dough hook, don’t bother with paddle 2. Only made half the amount of sauce, didn’t bother with the post-bake drizzling 3. Made day ahead through assembling, put in fridge overnight, then baked the next morning at 375 for 40-45 minutes 4. Put something underneath in oven to catch drips

Question: if you refrigerate this overnight - do you need to take it out of the refrigerator and get it to room temp before baking....or do you adjust the baking time?

Followed recipe as written (2 sticks of butter - video has 1). It was perfect. Quite sweet, but that's the point. Be sure to cook the full time; I took out after 25 minutes and the ones in the center were a bit underdone. I would have chopped the pecan less. Got a bit lost in the caramel sauce. Good the second day and can heat up in mwave (15 seconds at 20% power). It is somewhat complicated to make so prepare to devote the time. Took me from 8:00 am until 1:30 for it to be ready.

Random notes: 1. This makes a lot -- keeps well, but maybe best when you have guests. 2. The ingredients are listed with both volume and weight, but I don't think they convert accurately. Probably doesn't matter. 3. The dough balls get dipped in butter and then sugar and I used up both too soon. Am I too heavy-handed? 4. Make sure it's fully cooked. Might take a little extra time. 5. Don't forget to cool pan before you invert it, or it'll make a big mess!

I've baked this a couple times now. Great recipe. Quick notes: 1. Every oven is different, but mine definitely wants more cooking time than listed here, otherwise the inside is still doughy. 2. This makes a lot. Good the next day. Best for when you have a crowd. 3. When I invert it onto a platter at the end, quite a bit of sauce comes out. Make sure that your platter has a rimmed edge to avoid a giant sugar spill.

I needed to bake it for much longer. I took it out at the designated time and it was not done. I cooked it for another 25 minutes and it was perfect.

Much as I love chocolate it doesn’t belong in this recipe. This more like sticky Buns. I’d leave out the chocolate

Mixing with the paddle first just creates a sticky mess to deal with. Go straight to the dough hook.

As I read this recipe, I could not help but notice how similar the dough was to challah (water in challah, milk in monkey bread). So I made Challah dough (which always leaves me with too much bread) and used half the dough to make monkey bread. Recipes dovetailed perfectly challah for my house and Monkey Bread to bring to a Christmas breakfast. Thanks!

For those struggling with overcooked yet raw bakes, bake to an internal temp of 190 instead of to a fixed time. Also, if you refrigerate your dough, you must bring the dough back up to close to room temp before baking (otherwise the exposed dough will overcook long before the internal dough reaches temp). For this much dough, I needed to let it stand for three hours before it got to 65, so plan accordingly. You can pop it in colder, but the colder it is the more dried out the outside will be.

For those that find this too sweet, try the real thing, Hungarian aranygaluska. It’s made with apricot lekvar instead of all the caramelly goo. Keep the pecans.