Homemade Monkey Bread with Caramel and Chocolate
A simple homemade dough means you don't have to use canned biscuits for your monkey bread! This decadent bake is stuffed with caramel and chocolate, and it's the best homemade recipe for monkey bread you'll find.
Servings: 10
Calories: 777kcal
Ingredients
Monkey bread dough
- 2 tsp instant yeast or active dried yeast
- 1½ cups whole milk heated to lukewarm
- ¼ cup superfine sugar caster sugar
- 5 tbs unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 2 eggs large, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 cups white bread flour use all-purpose if you don't have bread flour
Caramel sauce
- 1 cup superfine sugar caster sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick, cubed
- 1/3 cup pouring cream single cream
- 3/4 tsp salt
To assemble
- ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick, melted and cooled
- 1 cup superfine sugar caster sugar
- 1 tbs ground cinnamon
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips or a block, chopped into pea-sized pieces
Instructions
Make the dough
- Put all of the dough ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, and mix on low speed until a smooth and elastic dough forms, about 7-8 minutes. The dough will be a little tacky but you should be able to touch it and stretch it a little without it sticking to your fingers. If it's too wet, add up to an extra 1/3 cup flour.2 tsp instant yeast, 1½ cups whole milk, ¼ cup superfine sugar, 5 tbs unsalted butter, 2 eggs, 1 tsp salt, 5 cups white bread flour
Benchtop - first proof
- Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm place to double in size. The time taken will depend on the temperature of your room; at a very warm room temp around 80°F/27°C, it'll take about 45 minutes to an hour. If your space is colder, it'll need longer.
(Alternative) Combi Steam Oven - first proof
- Put the bowl of dough into your steam oven and turn on the dough proving setting to 100⁰F/38⁰C (100% humidity). If you don’t have a dough proving setting, use the steam setting at the same temperature. Prove the dough until it's roughly doubled in size, about 30-45 minutes.
Make caramel sauce
- While the dough is proving, make the caramel sauce. Put the sugar in a heavy pan over medium high heat and let it melt. Swirl the pan occasionally to stop the sugar at the bottom burning before the top melts.1 cup superfine sugar
- Remove the pan from the heat as soon as all the sugar granules have melted and the liquid in the pan is a warm golden brown, and immediately add the butter, cream and salt. The caramel will spit and bubble up when you do this, which is normal. Be careful not to have your hands or face directly over the pan at this point, to avoid steam burns! Return the pan to the heat and reduce to medium. Stir until the caramel becomes a shiny, smooth sauce, then remove from heat and set aside.½ cup unsalted butter, 1/3 cup pouring cream, 3/4 tsp salt
Assemble the monkey bread
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and have your melted butter ready in another bowl. Have a Bundt or ring pan ready (no need to grease this).½ cup unsalted butter, 1 cup superfine sugar, 1 tbs ground cinnamon
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently press it down to knock out any large air bubbles. Use a knife or a dough scraper to cut the dough into little pieces, each about the size of a ping pong ball. They don't need to be perfectly even, nor round. You should end up with about 60 pieces.
- Dip each piece of dough quickly into the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon sugar. Drop the pieces randomly into your Bundt pan as you go, and once you’ve got a layer on the bottom, sprinkle about a third of the chocolate over the dough. Repeat with more dough and more chocolate until you've used everything up. I like to try and poke all the chocolate under the dough, so it doesn't leak and burn later when you bake the monkey bread.1 cup dark chocolate chips
- Pour about a third of your caramel sauce over the dough in the pan, and set the pan inside a baking tray to catch any spillover in the oven. Set the remaining caramel sauce aside for serving.
Convection oven - final proof and bake
- Set the assembled monkey bread aside in a warm place until it's puffed up by a quarter to a third of its volume, then preheat your oven to 350⁰F/180⁰C. When the oven is hot, put the pan and tray into the oven and bake until the bread is risen, deep golden brown and cooked through, about 30-35 minutes.
(Alternative) Combi steam oven - final proof and bake
- Put the pan and tray into your cold oven and set it to Combi Steam, 350⁰F/180⁰C, 50% (medium) humidity. You don’t need to preheat, as the bread will rise while the oven heats. This removes the need for a second prove. Cook your monkey bread for a total of 30-40 minutes (including the preheating time), until the loaf is golden and puffy.
Serve
- Leave the cooked monkey bread in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Top with as much of the remaining caramel sauce as you dare and serve it warm.
- Monkey bread is best eaten on the day of baking, but can be gently reheated on the second day.
Notes
- This is not a recipe for the faint of heart - it is laden with butter, sugar and chocolate! I don't recommend any substitutions to 'lighten' it; monkey bread is what it is, a very sweet treat.
- Monkey bread will keep, covered, at room temperature for a day or two (or in the fridge if you live in a hot climate). It's best served warm, and can be reheated gently using your microwave or a steam oven. I don't recommend freezing the leftovers as the bread tends to dry out on thawing.
- Any leftover caramel sauce will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge and makes a great ice cream topping.
Nutrition
Calories: 777kcal | Carbohydrates: 104g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 23g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 110mg | Sodium: 462mg | Potassium: 286mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 53g | Vitamin A: 935IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 136mg | Iron: 1mg
