Apple Cider Monkey Bread | Guest Recipes | Nigella's Recipes (2024)

FAQs

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

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.

Make dough: Combine warm water, yeast, and 1 teaspoon sugar in a large bowl. Let stand until bubbly and foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1 cup flour, warm milk, egg, 3 tablespoons sugar, butter, salt, and vanilla extract until combined. Add remaining 2 1/2 cups flour.

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.

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.

While most monkey bread recipes are typically made in a bundt pan, this recipe instructs you to make the monkey bread in a loaf pan. You get a smaller batch of monkey bread, perfect for serving 4 to 6 people!

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.

You'll know your monkey bread is done when it's puffy and crisp on the top, and when a skewer inserted in the thickest part comes out clean.

Fazekas traced the dessert back to the 1880s, claiming that it was Hungarian immigrants who introduced it to the United States. Fazekas named Hungarian Jewish bakers as the heroes of the story. In the middle of the twentieth century, it was they who made aranygaluska popular with American society.

The Baobab is one of the most majestic trees of Africa, very present in Senegal. Its fruit, which is called “monkey bread”, has multiple virtues. It is 2.5 times richer in vitamin C than an orange, contains 2.5 times more calcium than milk and six times more potassium than a banana.

If you reheat monkey bread too quickly, the sugar can burn. Wrap it up in foil and heat it at a lower temperature, around 180-200℉/82-93℃. Or you can reheat it in a microwave in 15-second bursts until it's the temperature you want.

What is the importance of monkey bread? ›

Studies have shown the benefits of monkey bread in the field of medicine. This fruit actually has anti-diarrheal, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, which can be beneficial for heart disease and diabetes.

™ Monkey Bread can be stored, tightly covered, on the counter for 1–2 days. To keep it fresh for 3–4 days, pop it into the fridge. And if you want to put a treat aside for future you, you can freeze monkey bread for up to two months.

Common names for the baobab include monkey-bread tree, upside-down tree, and cream of tartar tree.

Although there are endless variations, monkey bread is basically bite-sized pieces of dough baked with other ingredients that tie all the flavors together. The most common variation is exactly what you see here, made with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

The baobab has many uses and the fruit is one of the most valuable parts of the tree. The value of the fruit is evident when we consider that the most fre- quently cited English common names-baobab,5 Ethiopian sour gourd, sour gourd tree, cream of tartar tree, and monkey bread-are all in reference to the fruit.

Fazekas traced the dessert back to the 1880s, claiming that it was Hungarian immigrants who introduced it to the United States. Fazekas named Hungarian Jewish bakers as the heroes of the story. In the middle of the twentieth century, it was they who made aranygaluska popular with American society.

A baobab tree may also be called a monkey bread tree, Ethiopian sour gourd, cream of tartar tree and even upside-down tree. A slow-growing tree, baobab is an important resource with many purposes including shelter, medicinal and food in southern Africa.