Pull-apart Potato Cinnamon Bread
Also sometimes called "Monkey Bread", this is a delicious sweet treat!
Servings: 8 people
Equipment
- 9x13 Ceramic Baking Dish this kind of pan will also work nicely
- Bench Scraper Makes cutting the rols easier
Ingredients
The Dough
- 1 cup potato mashed with cooking liquid
- 1 cup milk heated to just below boiling and cooled to warm
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 packet Rapid Rise yeast
- 4 cups flour divided
The Topping
- 1 & 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 6 ounces butter, melted
Instructions
Prepare the Potato
- Cut the peeled potato into cubes and place in a small saucepan with 1/2 cup of water and simmer until potatoes are soft. Do not drain the liquid - just mash it and the potatoes together until nice and smooth. Measure one cup of this mixture for the recipe. This recipe will take just about all of the potato mixture.
Make the Bread
- Whisk together the potato, milk, egg, sugar, salt and dry yeast. I rarely bloom yeast these days - the rapid-rise stuff works just as well this way.
- Once that is nicely mixed, add 1 & 1/2 cups of the flour and whisk for another couple of minutes to develop the gluten in the flour.
- Switch to a wooden spoon and mix in 2 more cups of flour until well incorporated.
- Dump it out on a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, adding in the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. If it still seems terribly sticky, you can add more flour, but this stage is always going to be at least a little sticky because that is the nature of potato bread dough. You do want a nice smooth dough ball - see the photos in the post.
- Place dough in an oiled bowl and it cover with plastic wrap or a dampened kitchen towel and allow to rise in a warm place for about 2 hours. You want it to be about doubled in size.
- Punch down, turn out on the floured surface again, and knead briefly, so that you again have a nice smooth ball of dough. It will be bigger than before the rise.
- After forming the dough into a ball again, cut it into 3 equal pieces. Cut those thirds in half and then each of those halves in half, and then each piece in half again, and then each of those pieces in half again. You should have 48 little rolls. [don't stress if you lose track of the cutting and end up with some of different sizes, or not the exact right number. Just follow the next steps, and you'll see that it is going to be fine.]
Form the Bread
- Put your melted butter in a small dish and thoroughly mix the sugar and cinnamon together in another bowl.
- Prepare your pan. This will be too big for even a large bread pan, so I used my French White 2.5 quart baking dish. See the notes above for that dish, or an alternative that will also work. Butter the inside of the baking dish generously - don't skimp, because you don't want this to stick. I also cut a piece of parchment paper, so that it covers just the bottom and put that on top of the butter. A lot of yummy, sticky stuff is going to end up in the bottom of the dish, and you want all of that to come right out when you remove the baked bread from the dish.
- Dip each piece of dough into the melted butter, and then roll each one in the sugar and cinnamon mixture. As you get each one coated, arrange them in the prepared baking dish. Try not to make totally even rows - stagger them slightly, because you'll have fewer g big gaps that way. Again, refer to the photo in the post to see how this looks.
- I didn't have this happen in the multiple times I tested this recipe, but if you should happen to run out of either the butter or cinnamon/sugar mixture, just make a little more of what you need. You definitely want every single ball of dough to have an even coating.
- When all. of the little balls are arranged in the dish. scrape any remaining butter and sugar over the top.
- You don't need to cover it, but place in a warm spot and allow to rise again, just until the rolls begin to peek over the rim of the dish. Check after about 45 minutes, but it might take an hour. It's going to rise a little more in the oven.
- Just for extra insurance, I always put a parchment or foil-lined sheet pan on the rack below the baking dish, because a bit of the butter and sugar might overflow the pan.
- Preheat the oven to 350° and bake the bread for about 50 to 55 minutes, turning the dish about half-way through the baking time. It should be puffed up and the top quite brown, as in the photos.
- Cool on a rack for about 10 minutes. Loosen the edges of the bread with a table knife, and turn it onto a large plate. Peel off the parchment paper, and turn the bread over again, so the top is right-side up. Serve warm, with butter if you like. Half the fun is pulling pieces off with your fingers, but you can use a fork to separate them.
Notes
This can be stored at room temperature for a day or two, but any longer and it should be kept in the fridge. Cover with foil to re-heat. It can be frozen for longer keeping. Thaw completely before reheating.