homemade monkey bread: or why waiting 6 hours for brunch can pay off

I had the genius idea that I'd use up some of the week's buttermilk by making homemade monkey bread for brunch one Sunday. If I had read the recipe ahead of time carefully (which you should always do, btw), I would have known that this recipe takes a lot of time - there are two points at which the bread has to rise.

But let me tell you. It was 100% worth the time spent on it. It ended up being an afternoon snack, but it was so incredibly delicious. Worth every second. Truly.

Get the dry ingredients ready in the mixer with the dough hook. Can I just insert here how much I love my KitchenAid?

Whisk melted and cooled butter into the other wet ingredients. I also love giant Pyrex measuring cups. And mini whisks.


Get the dough hook going and add in the liquid a bit at a time.


Until it looks like this...


And then like this:


Then it's time to knead. (But not as much as I would without the KitchenAid.)


And cover and let it rise. For the first time. You have to let it double in size.


After it rises, you mix up the brown sugar and cinnamon, and then cut the dough into little chunks.


Melt some butter, dip the chunks in that melted goodness, and roll them in the brown sugar.

At this point you throw the covered chunks into a bundt pan (I didn't have a bundt pan large enough, so I used my big removable bottom Wilton tube pan.) and let it rise again. I have no idea where about 5 photos went, so we'll skip that part, but you get the picture. Throw it in the oven. Bring it out, and with the assistance of someone else, flip it. It will smell like heaven.


But it's not over yet. There is a glaze to top it off. Oh yessssssssss.


Confectioners sugar, milk, and vanilla. Delicious.

Dump it on. Behold the glory.:)


Thirty seconds after it was finished, this is what it looked like. That should tell you something.