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What is monkey bread?
If you aren’t familiar with popular American baked goods, you might not know what monkey bread is. To be honest, I’m not sure we’d ever had monkey bread until we developed this recipe. But we’ve seen it made a lot, whether on American cooking shows or blogs or, nowadays, on social media. Apparently, it originally comes from Hungarian aranygaluska, or “golden dumplings,” which Hungarian immigrants introduced to the US. Which is unsurprising to us, since most great “American” things come from immigrants. In case you couldn’t guess how we feel about current events…
Anyway, the idea of monkey bread is that it’s easy to tear apart and share, making it perfect to serve at a brunch or gathering with a larger group of people. It’s usually made with cinnamon, sugar, butter, and sometimes pecans. We’ve also seen a lot of recipes that use store-bought biscuit or pastry dough to make the process of making the monkey bread even easier.
But, if you know our blog, you know that we’ll be making the dough from scratch. Yeasted dough isn’t that difficult to make, and we always think that the end result is worth the extra effort to make it from scratch. Obviously, don’t let that stop you from adapting the recipe to your needs, so feel free to use store-bought dough if that’s easier for you. And, of course, you know we had to incorporate our favorite Scandinavian flavors into this delicious monkey bread, so that’s where cardamom became the star of the show, as usual.
Our love for cardamom
We put cardamom in so many baked goods, it’s not even funny. The few times we’ve omitted it from a recipe, especially for things like sweet buns, we’ll get a comment from a Scandinavian: where’s the cardamom? So, it’s not just us. It’s a very common and popular flavor in baked goods across Scandinavia. Perhaps the best-known cardamom dessert is the Swedish cardamom bun, or kardemummabullar. And it’ll come as no surprise to you that this is one of the most popular recipes on our blog!
Needless to say, we love cardamom. It’s such a beautiful and lightly floral flavor, and is so delicious in sweet baked goods, although it’s also a very common ingredient in various Indian curries. Somehow it’s able to add something special to both sweet and savory dishes, which is pretty cool.
To bundt or not to bundt
You may be curious about why people usually bake monkey bread in a bundt pan. This just seems to be a quirk of the recipe, and apparently, you can use the center to serve a dipping sauce or jam, which does sound very delicious. The shape also gives you the perfect ratio of crunchy and caramelized outer pieces and fluffy interior, so maybe that’s why it’s the pan of choice.
However, I didn’t actually own a bundt pan until this past Christmas, which is why we actually decided to develop this cardamom bun monkey bread recipe. So, if you don’t have one, don’t be discouraged! I think you could easily split this recipe into 2 loaf pans, or even bake a bunch of mini ones in muffin tins or ramekins – this works well too if you have a smaller bundt pan than the one we recommend (12-cup capacity), as you don’t want to overfill the pan. As a last resort, you could probably fill a baking sheet with these chunks of dough and try baking the cardamom bun monkey bread like that. So, don’t worry – no matter what, you’ll bake your monkey bread and eat it too!
Ingredients you’ll need
What will you need to make our cardamom bun monkey bread? For the dough, you’ll need butter, eggs, flour, salt, vanilla extract, cardamom, sugar, yeast, and milk. Then, to coat each chunk of dough, you’ll need more butter (a lot of butter, to be honest), light or dark brown sugar, and more cardamom.
Now, when it comes to the cardamom, you can definitely use store-bought ground cardamom if that’s all you have, but we would highly recommend toasting and grinding your own cardamom at home. All you need to do is toast some green cardamom pods in a dry pan for a couple of minutes, pop the seeds out from inside the pods, and grind them. You can then use a mortar and pestle or a spice/coffee grinder to coarsely grind the seeds, if you have either of those. Sometimes, you can also buy coarsely ground cardamom online or at the store, which we would recommend if you can find it.
How to make our cardamom bun monkey bread
The process of making the cardamom bun monkey bread starts like how you’d make cardamom buns, with a yeasted dough. Add the ingredients to a bowl, and either use a stand mixer or your hands to knead it until it’s nice and smooth and elastic. Let this rise in a warm place for up to 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Then, divide the dough into about 100 pieces, or fewer if you want bigger pieces. Dip each piece into melted butter, coat in cardamom sugar, and place into a greased bundt pan. The bundt pan should have a capacity of about 12 cups, so it should be about 3/4 full of the dough pieces by the time you’re done. If you only have a smaller bundt pan, just hold some dough back and place it into another pan and bake it alongside the bigger one.
Let this rise again for another 30 or so minutes, while you preheat the oven. Bake on a lower rack, so the top doesn’t get too dark, until nice and brown. You can also check the internal temperature with a thermometer, which should read 190 F (88 C). Let it cool for around 10 minutes, then flip it onto a large plate, cutting board, or tray and enjoy it while it’s still warm!
Cardamom Bun Monkey Bread
A sticky and caramelized tear-apart loaf of cardamom deliciousness! This is a great twist on Swedish cardamom buns.
Ingredients
DOUGH:
- 2 tsp instant yeast (2.25 tsp active-dry yeast, 17.5g fresh yeast)
- 300 ml milk, warm
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1-1½ tsp cardamom (if using fresh ground cardamom, you can use 1 tsp, but if using storebought ground cardamom, we'd add 1.5 tsp at least – this could also depend on the strength of the cardamom, as it becomes less fragrant over time)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1 tsp salt
- 750 grams all purpose flour
- 113 grams unsalted butter, softened
FILLING:
- 150 grams unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tsp ground cardamom (fresh ground cardamom is best – if storebought, increase slightly)
- 300 grams light brown sugar (you can definitely use dark brown sugar; the exterior will just caramelize more!)
Instructions
- If possible, grind fresh cardamom by toasting the pods lightly in a dry pan; remove the shell and grind the seeds using a mortar and pestle. Set aside until the ground cardamom is ready to use.
- If using active dry yeast, heat the milk in the microwave or on the stovetop until it is “fingervarm” (finger warm), meaning it should feel warm to the touch but not hot. Add your yeast, a small amount of the sugar needed for the recipe, stir, and leave it for 5-10 minutes until the mixture starts to bubble up. You can add this to the bowl of a stand mixer or another mixing bowl. If using instant yeast, simply add the yeast to the lukewarm milk – there usually is no need to wait for it to bubble up, but follow the instructions on your package of yeast if in doubt!
- Combine eggs, the remaining sugar, cardamom, vanilla extract, and salt in the bowl with the yeast and the milk mixture.
- Add in the flour and mix until the dough begins to come together.
- Add in softened butter and continue to knead the dough for at least 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
- Cover the dough and let it proof in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Once the dough has proofed, prepare the filling mixture: combine light or dark brown sugar in a bowl with ground cardamom; melt butter and keep in a separate bowl.
- Cut the dough into quarters, then roll each quarter into a log; proceed to cut the log into small pieces, about 20-25 pieces per quarter. You'll have about 80-100 pieces of dough total.
- Grease a 10-inch bundt pan with some of the melted butter (the pan should have a 12 cup capacity; if you use a smaller pan, you will have to bake some of the dough separately so the pan doesn't get overfilled!)
- Dip each piece of the dough in the melted butter, then coat in the brown sugar and cardamom mixture. Place each piece in the bundt pan.
- Repeat until your bundt pan is about 2/3 of the way full – if you fill this up more, it may leak out onto the bottom of the oven, so if you have leftover dough, you can bake it separately (either in ramekins or a muffin tin would be a good option!)
- If you end up with leftover sugar and butter, pour the rest over the top of the dough in the bundt pan.
- Cover the pan and let it rest for an additional 30 minutes.
- While the dough is rising again, preheat the oven to 350℉ (175℃).
- Place the bundt pan in the oven on a lower oven rack so that the top doesn't get too brown. Bake for around 40 minutes – the top will be nice and golden, and the interior temperature of the dough should read 190℉ (88℃). If the top is browning too quickly, you can cover it with foil. If you're worried about leaking, put a baking sheet underneath the pan to catch anything that drips down so it doesn't burn to the bottom of the oven.
- Once done baking, let cool for 10-15 minutes. Flip out onto a serving plate or cutting board, and it's best enjoyed while still warm! You can, of course, save the leftovers and reheat them in the microwave.
