Cheesy Garlic & Herb Monkey Bread

Making monkey bread requires understanding a method more than a recipe. Essentially, you take pizza dough (about a pound for a standard 9- to 10-inch skillet or baking dish), divide it into small balls, cram those balls together into a vessel, top with cheese if desired, and bake until golden.

The variations are endless, but I love this one for its simplicity: a 4-ingredient pizza dough and a flavored butter, a mix of fresh garlic, parsley, and crushed red pepper flakes, brushed on post-bake. The union here is so much more than the sum of its parts, and aside a vat of homemade tomato sauce , well, this savory monkey bread is pure heaven.

How to Make Monkey Bread, Step by Step

First, gather your ingredients: flour, water, salt, and instant yeast.

Whisk the dry ingredients together, add the water, and stir until you have a sticky dough ball:

Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes, then stretch and fold it. Video guidance:

Let it rise until it doubles in volume:

Turn it out onto a floured work surface:

Divide the dough into 19 small portions:

Ball up each portion.

Transfer the balls to a buttered 9- to 10-inch cast iron skillet:

Let the dough rest until the balls fill the pan:

Top with mozzarella, brush with olive oil, and transfer to the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely golden brown:

Meanwhile, make the spicy, herby, garlicky butter:

Brush the herby butter over the just-baked rolls:

Serve aside homemade tomato sauce :

Description

Notes:

Monkey Bread Dough recipe adapted from the pizza recipe in my cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs .

If you don’t want to make the dough from scratch, you can use a pound of store-bought pizza dough instead.

If you make my pizza dough recipe , this is half the recipe, so if ever you find yourself with two rounds of dough stored in your fridge, you can use those two rounds in this recipe.

Yeast: If you use 1 teaspoon of instant yeast and plan on doing a faster rise, use lukewarm water to help your dough rise in a timely manner.

for the dough, see notes above:

• 2 cups ( 256 g ) bread or all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ( 6 g ) kosher salt
• 1/4 to 1 teaspoon ( 1 to 4 g) instant yeast, see notes above
• a heaping 3/4 cup ( 200 g ) water

for topping:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove of garlic
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley
• 4 ounces whole milk, low-moisture mozzarella, pulled into pieces
• extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing

for the serving:

• homemade tomato sauce

1. Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and instant yeast. Add the water. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the liquid is absorbed and the ingredients form a sticky dough ball. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Stretch and fold the dough: Fill a small bowl with water. Using a wet hand, stretch and fold the dough by grabbing an edge and pulling it up and towards the center. Repeat this stretching and folding process, 8 to 10 times, moving your hand around the edge of the dough with every set of stretches and folds. As you stretch and fold, you should feel the dough transform from being sticky and shaggy to smooth and cohesive. Find video guidance in the post above as well as here .
3. Let it rise: Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until it doubles in volume, 12-18 hours if using 1 gram of yeast, 2-3 hours if using 4 grams of yeast.
4. Proof: Butter a 9- or 10-inch cast iron skillet or baking dish. Dust a work surface with flour. Turn the dough out onto the surface and use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 19 small portions — I know 19 feels very specific, but it makes for the perfect arrangement in the skillet. With floured hands, roll each portion into a ball. Transfer the balls to the prepared skillet. (Note: At this point, you can wrap the skillet in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for 24 hours.)
5. Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
6. Make the flavored butter: Place the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Finely mince the garlic or grate it with a microplane, then add it to the butter. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes and the parsley. Once butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat.
7. Bake the monkey bread: When the dough balls have doubled in size and are squishing together in the pan, scatter the mozzarella over the top. Drizzle with about a tablespoon of olive oil and brush it to distribute evenly. Transfer the pan to the oven, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the balls are evenly golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with the garlic-herb butter. Let cool briefly before serving with the tomato sauce on the side.

• Prep Time: 2 hours
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Category: Bread
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

Description

Notes:

Monkey Bread Dough recipe adapted from the pizza recipe in my cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs .

If you don’t want to make the dough from scratch, you can use a pound of store-bought pizza dough instead.

If you make my pizza dough recipe , this is half the recipe, so if ever you find yourself with two rounds of dough stored in your fridge, you can use those two rounds in this recipe.

Yeast: If you use 1 teaspoon of instant yeast and plan on doing a faster rise, use lukewarm water to help your dough rise in a timely manner.

for the dough, see notes above:

• 2 cups ( 256 g ) bread or all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ( 6 g ) kosher salt
• 1/4 to 1 teaspoon ( 1 to 4 g) instant yeast, see notes above
• a heaping 3/4 cup ( 200 g ) water

for topping:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove of garlic
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley
• 4 ounces whole milk, low-moisture mozzarella, pulled into pieces
• extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing

for the serving:

• homemade tomato sauce

1. Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and instant yeast. Add the water. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the liquid is absorbed and the ingredients form a sticky dough ball. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Stretch and fold the dough: Fill a small bowl with water. Using a wet hand, stretch and fold the dough by grabbing an edge and pulling it up and towards the center. Repeat this stretching and folding process, 8 to 10 times, moving your hand around the edge of the dough with every set of stretches and folds. As you stretch and fold, you should feel the dough transform from being sticky and shaggy to smooth and cohesive. Find video guidance in the post above as well as here .
3. Let it rise: Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until it doubles in volume, 12-18 hours if using 1 gram of yeast, 2-3 hours if using 4 grams of yeast.
4. Proof: Butter a 9- or 10-inch cast iron skillet or baking dish. Dust a work surface with flour. Turn the dough out onto the surface and use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 19 small portions — I know 19 feels very specific, but it makes for the perfect arrangement in the skillet. With floured hands, roll each portion into a ball. Transfer the balls to the prepared skillet. (Note: At this point, you can wrap the skillet in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for 24 hours.)
5. Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
6. Make the flavored butter: Place the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Finely mince the garlic or grate it with a microplane, then add it to the butter. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes and the parsley. Once butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat.
7. Bake the monkey bread: When the dough balls have doubled in size and are squishing together in the pan, scatter the mozzarella over the top. Drizzle with about a tablespoon of olive oil and brush it to distribute evenly. Transfer the pan to the oven, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the balls are evenly golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with the garlic-herb butter. Let cool briefly before serving with the tomato sauce on the side.

• Prep Time: 2 hours
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Category: Bread
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

Find it online : https://alexandracooks.com/2015/01/29/garlic-thyme-monkey-bread-spicy-tomato-sauce/

More often than I would like to admit, I open the fridge and think: How can this be? How can there be nothing to make for dinner? Again.

A few nights ago this happened, but as I was closing the door, a spot of color — a few tablespoons of curried apple chutney in a jam jar — caught my eye and saved the day.

I had made the chutney, a mix of stewed apples, onion, ginger, vinegar, sugar, and curry a few weeks ago to pair with smoked gouda in a grilled cheese for a post over on the Wisconsin Cheese Talk blog. A spoonful of this sweet, tart, spicy condiment goes a long way, and the little that remained in the jar proved plenty for two good-sized grilled cheese made on peasant bread using my favorite Suzanne Goin technique .

For the chutney:

• 2 large apples, peeled, cored, and roughly chopped
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup sugar
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• pinch kosher salt
• pinch red pepper flakes to taste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• one lemon
• small handful of cilantro, minced

For 1 grilled cheese:

• 2 slices good, bakery style bread
• mayonnaise
• neutral oil such as canola or grapeseed
• 1 – 2 tablespoons curried apple chutney
• Gouda, grated

Make the chutney:

1. Combine all of the chutney ingredients with the exception of the lemon and cilantro in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Uncover, mash the apples with a spoon (or potato masher or whisk) to help them breakdown, give everything a stir, cover and continue cooking for 10 minutes or until the mixture has thickened slightly.
2. Uncover, stir, and add the juice of half a lemon and the minced cilantro. Stir, taste, and adjust seasoning as needed: a pinch more salt or pepper flakes, a squeeze more lemon, etc. Transfer chutney to a storage vessel, let cool completely, cover and refrigerate.

Make the grilled cheese:

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Heat an oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise over one side of each slice of bread. Add a thin layer of oil (2 teaspoons or so) to skillet. When the oil is hot, place the bread, mayonnaise side down in pan and let cook until golden, about 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat, transfer bread to work surface.
2. Spread a layer of chutney over each non-toasted side of bread. Top with a handful of grated cheese. Place each slice of bread back into pan (cheese side up) and transfer skillet to the oven. Bake until cheese is melted, 5-7 minutes.
3. Remove skillet from oven, press the two pieces of bread together, melted cheese sides in. Halve sandwich on a diagonal and let cool briefly before eating.

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Category: Sauce
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: American, Indian