Adventures in Sourdough: Pull Apart Bread (Monkey Bread)

This recipe is adapted from Food Snots: Cinnamon and Sugar Pull Apart Bread and when I saw the original recipe I thought to myself -> Must convert this to a sourdough recipe!

After all, I love to find new ways to use my sourdough starter.

I had a vague idea of how I wanted to prep the dough using the sourdough starter and I also wanted to keep the dough slightly sweet the way the original recipe is designed. I took my idea over to Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine’s kitchen and made test ran the recipe for the very first time. The results? Everyone survived and even had great things to say about the taste. We had success!

Recipe:

Sponge Ingredients:

1 cup sourdough starter (room temperature)

1/2 cup milk

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

Pour the sourdough starter in a large bowl. Add milk and vegetable oil. Mix well.

Fold in the flour and sugar. The sponge will be fairly stiff. Cover and leave to rise overnight at room temperature.

 

Dough Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Combine dry ingredients, otherwise the baking soda could leave streaks in your dough.

Fold in ½ cup of the flour mixture into the sponge mixture, and combine well.

Put the dough on a well-floured surface or in a big bowl and knead well. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture as needed, whenever you feel the dough get sticky under your palm. Actual amount of the flour mixture needed will vary depending on ambient humidity, etc. (Hey, it’s bread, what did you expect?)

Continue working until the dough is smooth and elastic. It should not be so tacky it sticks to your fingers (like chewing gum). Set aside to rest while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Filling Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

4 Tbsp. butter, melted

Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside.

Grease a small baking dish or loaf pan.

On a large, floured surface, roll out the dough in a rough rectangle approximately 1/4 inch thick. Brush the melted butter over the dough, being sure to brush to the very edges. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the dough.

Using a shape knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into equal sized strips (about 2 to 2 1/2 inches wide). Then cut the strips into equal sized squares.

Stack the squares on top of each other in small piles and place the piles in the greased pan on their side. The effect is prettier if the squares are unevenly stacked. Take any sugar that fell off squares and sprinkle over the top and around the sides of dough. Drizzle any left over melted butter along the sides of the dough.

Cover the dough for another 10-15 minutes to rise at room temperature. They should increase in size visibly.

Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 350F.

When ready, place the pan in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the square edges are golden brown.  You might want to place a baking sheet under the loaf pan in case any sugar mixture drips over the sides.