Monkey Pull-Apart Bread

For Valentine's day, Peter made dinner for me! He made a beautiful meal! So I got that extra time to come up with a fun treat to make for him... Monkey bread! It was perfect for Valentines because I could make it in a heart-shaped bundt pan, instead of the normal circle bundt pan. Also, it was fun because you can just eat it with your fingers, so we could sit on the couch and watch a movie together while we had fun pulling it apart. AND, any leftovers become a breakfast treat the next morning... what, it's the same as a cinnamon roll for breakfast!


I would love to make this with a homemade dough, but that will have to wait for another post; this night I wasn't really allowed in the kitchen because Peter wanted dinner to be a surprise. Thus, this version will be with a pre-made dough. So this one is quick and easy. 


Ingredients: 

• 2 loaves of Bridgford 'Ready-Dough', defrosted (sold in 3 packs, in the freezer section of the supermarket) ...you can use all 3 loaves of bread if you want more, but be sure to bump up the amount of butter to 1 1/2 sticks if you do so.
• ½ cup butter (1 stick), melted
• Cinnamon sugar mixture (4 tsp cinnamon mixed with 3/4 cup sugar)

*Chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

*Glaze (optional): (1 Tbsp melted butter, 1/2 C powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp milk, 1 tsp. vanilla extract) 

Preheat your oven to 100 degrees F, then set up a little assembly line:

1. Roll the defrosted dough into little balls (smaller than a golf ball, but bigger than a large marble)

2. Dip the balls into the melted butter. 

3. Roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

4. Place each ball in a sprayed bundt pan as you go. No need to pack them in- just layer them gently, as little spaces are necessary to give them room to rise and pull apart later. 

**(Optional: if you like nuts or the added crunch, try sprinkling in chopped pecans or walnuts into the pan before you start filling with dough balls. And/Or mix some pecans/walnuts throughout the layers of dough balls ). 

(here is my assembly station)

After you are done, turn OFF the oven, pour any extra melted butter over the dough balls and sprinkle with a little leftover cinnamon-sugar mixture. 

 (Don't worry if it looks like there is not enough dough; it WILL fill up more later while it rises, and again even more when it cooks)

Place pan in the warm and OFF oven and let them rise about 30 minutes or so. (perfect for while you are eating dinner). 

Then take the pan out, and let it sit somewhere warm or on top of the stove while you preheat the oven to 350. 

(See how much it has grown and puffed up already!)

Then cook it for about 20-25 minutes, until it looks golden and puffy like this:

Then invert on a plate and have fun pulling apart this sweet, sticky treat! 

**Caution: hot sugar BURNS, so maybe let it cool just a minute or so before you start pulling at it :)

ALSO, If you would like, you can drizzle a little glaze over the top and add a sprinkle of powdered sugar to dress it up even more (as if it needs more dressing up... or more calories :)

Because Peter brought home these gorgeous flowers:

and made this delicious meal:

and set this beautiful table: 

...I figured he deserved the extra glaze ...I'll just blame it on that- not that I wanted it myself or anything :)