Salted Brown Sugar & Macadamia Monkey Bread

Salted Caramel & Macadamia Monkey Bread

I first came across Monkey Bread a couple of years ago; 3 hours deep into shows on Food TV, the words Monkey Bread popped up on the screen, quickly followed by this beautiful mountain of individual pieces of dough that fit together like a jigsaw, glued together with caramelised brown sugar. It’s what dreams are made of. Before we carry on - I have a GIVEAWAY down below, so check it out!

To add a little Rhi twist to this recipe, I added a generous pinch of sea salt flakes to the brown sugar dip, which gives you that delish salted caramel taste. Not only that, I replaced pecans (the most classically used nut in Monkey Bread) with macadamia nuts - my oh my do they make this recipe even more delicioussssss.

Now, disclaimer, this is a yeast dough you will need to make from scratch - but don’t let this intimidate you! It’s as easy as mixing the yeast with the wet ingredients, then bringing these together with the dry to form the dough. You can do this by hand, or make your life a lot easier and use a stand mixer! I used the dough hook attachment on my Kenwood kMix Stand Mixer and it took the hard work away from the kneading process. Not going to lie, I love having an excuse to use this babe of an appliance. Could it be any prettier?!

Not only does this bread look the part, it tastes it too; if you are an avid baker or first timer when it comes to dough, please give this a try! You won’t look back.

Ingredients

1 cup milk
⅓ cup water
4tbsp caster sugar
2 ¼ tsp dried yeast
3 ¼ + ¼ cup standard flour
1 ½ tsp salt
1 egg yolk
2tbsp butter, melted

½ cup butter, melted
¾ cup brown sugar
1tsp flaky sea salt
⅓ cup chopped macadamias

½ cup icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract or paste
Milk or water
Sea salt flakes, to garnish

Method

In a small pot, combine the milk, water and sugar. Place over a medium heat, and stir until lukewarm. Pour into a bowl, sprinkle over the yeast and stir. Leave to sit for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture is foamy and has increased in size.
In the your mixer combine the flour and salt. Attach the dough hook* to the mixer, lock in the bowl, and place on a low speed. Pour in the yeast mixture, then increase the speed to medium.
Once the dough has come together, add in the egg yolk and 2tbsp melted butter. Leave to knead for 5 minutes, or until the dough is completely together and shiny.
Tip out onto a floured bench, and bring together with your hands. Place into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and proof in a warm area for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Once proofed, tip the dough out onto a floured bench. Roll out with a rolling pin to a rectangular shape that is around 1cm in depth. Using a knife, cut into even sized squares (I cut mine 8x4). Roll each square into a ball.
Grease a bundt pan with butter. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar with 1tsp flaky sea salt. Dip each dough ball in butter, then roll in the brown sugar mix. Place into the bundt tin.
Repeat until each dough ball is in the pan, sprinkling with macadamias as each layer builds.
Cover with plastic wrap, and proof for a further 45 minutes to an hour. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius fan bake.
Once proofed, bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and caramelised.
Leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a cooling rack.
To make the glaze, add the icing sugar and vanilla to a bowl. Slowly add water/milk while stirring until a slightly thick glaze forms.
Using a spoon or honey dipper, drizzle the glaze over the cooled monkey bread. Store airtight for up to 3 days!

Thanks to Kenwood for making this post possible