Butterscotch Monkey Bread Recipe (Bubble Bread) (2024)

FAQs

What is monkey bread and why is it called monkey bread? ›

The origin of the term "monkey bread" is unknown. Some food historians suggest that it comes from the pastry being a finger food, and that those eating it pick apart the bread with their hands as a monkey might. Others suggest that it comes from the pastry's resemblance to the monkey puzzle tree Araucaria araucana.

Bread Ingredients

Bananas: You will need 3 ripe bananas for the bread dough and 3 more bananas that will be diced and layered in between the balls of bread dough. Yeast: I used instant yeast in this recipe. It is also called quick rise or fast-rising yeast. Milk: I prefer whole milk in this recipe.

Refrigerator thaw (8-16 hours): Prepare rolls as directed in step 1, then thaw in refrigerator for at least 8 hours. Rolls may need to continue to rise at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours if not double in size.

Simply put, you have to control the temperature of the bread. Allowing ample time for your bread dough to rise and the yeast to form will create the holes in the bread that give it a lighter texture. Letting your dough get puffy and grow before it goes into the oven is critical.

Recipes for the bread first appeared in American women's magazines and community cookbooks in the 1950s. During the 1980s, Nancy Reagan popularized serving monkey bread during Christmas by making it a staple of the Reagan White House Christmas.

If the bottom of the pieces that haven't been exposed is still doughy, the bread needs to bake longer. If it's fully baked and no stretchy dough appears, it's ready.

Common names for pieces of dough baked together in a pan include bubble bread, bubble loaf, jumble bread, pull-apart bread, pinch-me cake, pluck-it cake, monkey puzzle bread, monkey brains, and monkey bread.

Monkey Bread, aka Puzzle Bread, aka Hungarian Coffee Cake, may not have originated in the United States but in Hungary, where my paternal grandmother was born. And so, in my search for a dish that was previously unknown to me, I am somehow guided to an ancestral tradition. I think that grandmom would be pleased.

Baobab's medicinal benefits…

Powdered monkey-bread is used as a remedy for exhaustion. It aids recovery after illness like flu, or after sports. It also has strong anti-inflammatory properties and helps fight joint pain and other inflammations. Finally, this powder promotes digestive health and protects the liver.

Yeast is an active ingredient that can be damaged and deactivated by being thawed and refrozen. So keep Rhodes frozen solid until you are ready to bake it. Yeast is the most active when it is fresh. For the best baking experience use Rhodes within 30 days of buying.

What to do if you forget to thaw Rhodes rolls? ›

Place the bread in the oven on a middle rack. Place another baking sheet, half-filled with water, on a lower rack and turn the oven off. After 15-20 minutes, check the rolls. If they have doubled in size, they are ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 200°F. Then turn the oven off. Boil 2 quarts water and put in a pan on the lowest rack. Put rolls in the oven and let thaw and rise until double in size.

Alveoli. This is the name for the holes in the crumb. These are really air pockets that are formed during mixing and they expand during fermentation and baking.

Pop any air bubbles that show on top of the loaf with a wooden pick. Allow the bread to rise in a draft-free 80°F to 90°F area away from a heat source. If the area is too warm, bread will rise too fast and begin cooking before the yeast has finished acting.

When the oven is too hot, the crust forms before all the steam has escaped from the loaf. This causes bubbles to build up under crust. The oven temperature may not be correct. To insure the correct temperature each time you bake, always use an oven thermometer.

Also known as Hungarian Coffee Cake, Bubble Loaf, and, my favorite, Pinch Me Cake, the term Monkey Bread didn't start popping up until the 1950's in various women's magazines.

Meaning of monkey bread in English

a sweet food made from small balls of bread dough (= a mixture made of flour and water) that have been covered in butter and baked together: Monkey bread is easy to separate once it is cooked.

Each bite tastes like the sticky delicious center of cinnamon rolls. Monkey bread is served pull apart style, similar to my cinnamon roll wreath, where everyone tears off a piece—just like how monkeys pick at their food. You can have monkey bread for breakfast, brunch, or dessert.

Baobab is a fruit grown in Africa. Pronounced as “bau-bab,” this fruit grows on trees that can be over 1,000 years old. A baobab tree may also be called a monkey bread tree, Ethiopian sour gourd, cream of tartar tree and even upside-down tree.