Strawberry Monkey Bread-#TwelveLoaves April

You may think making monkey bread from scratch is something difficult and I am here to tell you…it’s not! Really…I promise. Pinky promise.

If you can find the time to make your own dough, you will be thrilled with the results. You know when you make something and you see the photo a few weeks later and think, holy cow! I’ve got to make this again now! This…this my friends is one of those recipes. Strawberry Monkey Bread is a recipe that you will be dreaming about once you taste it. 

March was a delicious month filled with holiday breads (there are 25 incredible recipes you must see!) and now we are ready for our next #TwelveLoaves challenge: baking with BERRIES!

The dough balls dipped in butter and rolled around in cinnamon sugar creates such a wonderful gooey mess. A gooey mess that is even more wonderful from the sweet strawberries tucked in between each fluffy pillow of dough. This monkey bread is dreamy. Truly dreamy!

When you flip it out onto you serving dish, there is this incredible cinnamon-sugar-strawberry sauce just waiting for you to dive into!

#TwelveLoaves April: Berries. Bake a bread, yeast or quick bread, loaf or individual. This #TwelveLoaves is all about breads featuring beautiful berries! Think luscious quick loaves, sinful scones, delightful Danishes. Any way you want to feature your berries, we want to see it.  Let’s get baking!

Look at what our very talented #TwelveLoaves bakers have created this April!

• Lemon Blueberry Bread by Alice at Hip Foodie Mom
• Yoghurt Scones With Cranberries by Rossella at Ma che ti sei mangiato
• Raspberry Quick Bread by Holly at A Baker’s House
• Mixed Berry Bread by Renee at Magnolia Days
• Raspberry Danish by Liz at That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Strawberry Cinnamon Swirl Bread by Paula at Vintage Kitchen
• Berry Oatmeal Muffins by Roxana at Roxana’s Home Baking
• Strawberry Monkey Bread by Lora at Cake Duchess
• Berry Breakfast Bread by Dionne at Try Anything Once
• Strawberry Scones by Karen at Karen's Kitchen Stories

We would love to have you join our #TwelveLoaves group; it’s easy!
1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone’s posts. Please make sure that your Bread is inspired by the theme!
2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.
3. Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this April 2013 posted on your blog by April 30, 2013.

It’s been a pleasure baking with you since I launched this Twelve Loaves this past May.
Check out what we have been busy baking!

May theme: Focaccia
June theme: Corn Rolls
July theme: Challah
August theme: Summer Fruit
September: Say CHEESE!
October: Seeds, nuts and grains
November: Autumn Fruits: Apples and Pears
December: Boozy Bread
January: Clean Slate
February: Open Challenge
March: Holiday Breads

I've submitted these delicious bagels to Susan at Wild Yeast Blog .
I'm also sharing these hot cross buns with my friend Roxana's BYOB bread baking event. 
Follow @TwelveLoaves on Twitter
See what’s freshly baked for #TwelveLoaves on our growing Pinterest board.

Would you like to bake along with us each month? Send me an email at: cakeduchess @ aol.com .

monkey bread notes: I had many ideas for this berry theme! Where to start? A fun quick bread was of course on my mind. Then I was going a breakfast bread route like the blueberry bread I made last year. I then was remembering it’s been a while since I made a monkey bread and they are always very welcomed here. I was thinking about my friend Shelley’s strawberry version she made with #TwelveLoaves last year and thought it would be perfect for our Berry theme this April. I used this dough recipe which is a really reliable dough that I use for some many recipe. I think these would be delightful also with blueberries. Just make them…trust me, make them! You may not even have the patience to flip it out onto a serving plate and may dig right into the bundt pan. Just be sure to not burn your fingers.

Dough

1 cup whole milk
1 (1/2 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
4 1/2-5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the dough balls:
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2-4 teaspoons cinnamon (depending on how much cinnamon flavor you like)
1 cup strawberries, cleaned and sliced
strawberry sauce: (optional)
1 cup strawberries, cleaned and sliced
3/4 cup sugar
Directions

Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from heat and let stand until cooled to room temperature.  Meanwhile, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a large bowl.

Add 1 T of the sugar and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Beat in the remaining 2 T sugar, eggs and butter.  Beat in cooled milk.  Gradually add the flour and salt, scraping down side of bowl, until a soft dough forms.

Turn dough onto a floured work surface and knead the remaining flour into the dough, adding more flour if too sticky.  Knead for about 10 minutes until smooth. The dough will be soft.

Grease a large bowl. Place the dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

While dough is rising, melt the butter; set aside. In a large plastic baggie, add sugar and cinnamon. Give it a shake to combine it well. Spray a bundt pan with baking spray and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F.

Prep the strawberry sauce:

Add the strawberries with the sugar to a medium sauce pan. Cook the berries on medium heat. Stir occasionally and simmer until you have a nice texture (about 10 minutes). When ready, set aside.

Back to the dough:

Punch down dough when it is ready. Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and portion it out into 1/2” size balls. Dip each ball into the butter and add to the baggie with the cinnamon sugar (I added about 6 balls at a time).

Give it a good shake and start to layer it in the bundt pan. Add some strawberries in between the cinnamon sugar dough balls. 

Keep layering the balls and strawberries and make sure it is an even top layer (you can move the balls around to make sure it looks even.)Tuck any leftover strawberries between the balls. Place the bundt pan on a parchment lined baking sheet (you may have some strawberry juices overflow) and bake for a about 40-50 minutes or until it is a nice golden color. Check after 30 minutes. If it seems to be getting too brown too fast, cover with a loose layer of tin foil. When done baking, flip over onto your serving plate and dig in! Serve with strawberry sauce. 

Happy Baking! xo Lora