Thai Tea Monkey Bread
Serves 8-10
Prep: 4 hours (including dough rising)
Baking time: 35 minutes
Thai Tea Monkey Bread
One of the first desserts I ever made was a pre-made monkey bread mix that they don’t make anymore. It came in a paper bag with an adorable little monkey on the side; it was perfect. The bread itself was fluffy, and the cinnamon-sugar was intoxicating to my 6-year-old self. I fantasized about that monkey bread for years and have yet to find one that matches the same ecstasy it once gave me—until now.
I have some qualms with monkey bread recipes today. Most of them use canned biscuit dough. While I appreciate a good shortcut, to me, monkey bread should be fluffy, and biscuit dough makes it far too dense. If you’re going to make your own monkey bread, you’ve got to do it right, starting with a fluffy, pillow-like dough (like the one in this recipe). To make this dessert, I first experimented with the Food 52's recipe for monkey bread from 2014 (that was my first non-biscuit/non-bag mix monkey dough years ago) and then thought about incorporating elements from soft, supple bread rolls to Frankenstein this recipe together. It’s easy, I promise. The dough itself is slightly orange and creamy thanks to the Thai tea mixture and the cardamom-sugar crumb just makes it divine. But, the beauty of this recipe is that you can customize this base as you like (with one requirement: you have to tell me about your experiments!).
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons loose-leaf Thai tea mix (such as ChaTraMue) (30g)
- 1 cup of whole milk, warmed (250g)
- 1/3 cup of water, warmed (80g)
- 1/3 cup of granulated sugar (65g), plus 1 cup of granulated sugar divided (200g)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 10 tablespoons divided and melted (1.5 sticks in total)
- 2 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast
- 1 large egg
- 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (500g)
- 1 teaspoon salt (5g)
- 1 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar) (215g)
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
Directions
- Infuse the milk: In a saucepan, add milk and Thai tea mix in a loose tea stepper and heat on low-to-medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes to infuse the two (do not let come to a boil). Turn off heat and let cool until warm, but not hot to touch.
- Prepare the yeast: In a bowl, mix together the warm Thai tea milk mixture, warm water, two tablespoons melted butter, sugar, and yeast. Let sit for 5 to 7 minutes.
- Form dough: In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the yeast mixture, egg, salt, and half of the flour. Mix on low speed for about 1 minute until just combined. Add the remaining flour and increase to medium speed. Mix for another 6 to 7 minutes on medium until the dough is smooth and supple. If the dough sticks to the sides, add flour, one tablespoon at a time and continue beating until it isn't sticking to the sides.
- First rise: Lightly grease a bowl (ideally with leftover butter wrapper), cover , and let the dough rise until doubled, about an hour and a half.
- Shape dough: Once risen, punch down the dough and place on a lightly greased surface, press the dough into a thick rectangle or square and use a bench scraper or pizza cutter to cut the dough into roughly 35 to 40 small dough balls (weighing about 25g each); Roll each piece into a round ball shape.
- Prepare coating: In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of granulated sugar, coconut sugar, ground cardamom, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, prepare the 10 tablespoons melted butter.
- Dip the dough pieces in melted butter and then roll evenly in the sugar mixture. I use one hand for each (one dry and one wet to avoid clumping). Place the dough pieces in the prepared Bundt pan, spreading the balls slightly apart they aren't stacked exactly on top of each other. Don't crowd your bundt pan, if you find that once they are all in it is overflowing (even without the first rest) your pan may be too small. If that's the case, you can save some excess and bake them off into muffin tins or anything else you'd like. This recipe is for a 10-inch bundt pan (12 cup-size).
- Second rise: Once finished, cover the bundt pan and let the dough rise for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once risen, pour the rest of the butter and sugar mixture over (in the oven it'll create a dreamy caramel!).
- Uncover the bundt pan and bake for 35 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for no longer than a few minutes (ideally up to 5, any longer and the bread will stick and harden). Turn the bread onto a platter, serve warm, and enjoy!
