This post has been sponsored by Morton. All thoughts and opinions are my own. My home-made salted tahini caramel monkey bread is made of bite-sized soft yeasted dough, baked to golden perfection, and covered in a delicious sauce. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Beyond Sweet and Savory possible.
Since taking a bread class for my birthday at the beginning of the year, I’ve made more bread this year than I have ever made in my whole life. With the holidays coming up, I’m so excited to partner with Morton Salt to bring you the perfect bread recipe, salted tahini caramel monkey bread. Homemade yeasted dough is rolled into balls, baked to golden perfection in a bundt pan, and covered in a delicious salted tahini caramel sauce. My tahini caramel sauce is flavored with All-Natural Morton® Coarse Himalayan Pink Salt which is great for topping, seasoning and finishing. I love using it for many salads and desserts. It helps bring the dish to the next level by adding to the recipe both texturally and aesthetically, delivering a burst of flavor and bite of crunch to every meal! Plus, the product has a new look!
What is a monkey bread
A classic monkey bread is a sweet, gooey bundt cake made from balls of store bought biscuit dough rolled in cinnamon sugar. Many claim that the bread resembles the monkey puzzle tree or the bread being a finger food which requires us to pick it apart as a monkey would. To me, monkey bread is a relative of cinnamon buns since they share some commonalities.
How to make your own money bread dough
Instead of using store bought biscuit, I made my own dough. For this bread, I start with a yeasted dough that’s enriched with whole milk, eggs, and butter. Similar bread that utilize rich dough are donuts, cinnamon rolls, babka, and star bread. One key point about working with yeast is making sure the temperature of the milk doesn’t go above 110℉ or the yeast will die. Instant dry yeast or active dry yeast works for this recipe but the rise time will take a little longer if you use the latter. Always check the expiration date on your yeast package otherwise the yeast might be old and the dough won’t rise properly.
The dough requires two proving steps. After the dough is made, leave it in a warm spot in your kitchen to rise for 2 hours. Once it doubles in size, punch down the dough to release any air bubbles and let it prove overnight, about 8 hours, in the fridge to develop flavor. Letting the dough prove overnight in the fridge will save you a lot of time the next day.
How to prepare the monkey bread dough
When you’re ready to bake, roll the dough out to an 8x10 inch rectangle and cut them into roughly equal sizes. They don’t need to be perfect. You’ll need to roll these pieces into 60-80 little balls depending on how big you cut them.
This is the perfect project to enlist kids and other family members to make the work go faster. My boys love playing with dough so they get really excited when I ask them for help.
What size bundt pan to use
All the little dough balls get layered inside a bundt cake pan. I used a 10-cup bundt pan so my monkey bread has room to expand during baking. If you use any bundt pans less than 10 cups, you’ll have bread dough pooling all over the bottom of your oven! I also put my bundt pan on top of a baking sheet to prevent it from happening.
How to make salted tahini caramel sauce
Unlike the traditional monkey bread where each ball of dough is coated in melted butter and cinnamon-sugar, I drizzled a homemade salted tahini caramel sauce throughout the layers of dough. To make this caramel sauce, you need brown sugar, water, butter, heavy cream, tahini, and Morton® Coarse Himalayan Pink Salt.
Light brown sugar and water are heated on the stove until completely melted and thickened, then heavy cream, butter, tahini and salt are whisked in until smooth. The two heroes of this sauce are the tahini and salt. Tahini lends a nutty and almost savory note to the sauce while the salt enhances its flavor and balances the sweetness.
I always keep a jar of salted tahini caramel in the fridge. It’s finger licking good with the perfect balance of sweet and salty. I use it for baked goods like brownies, cakes, and tarts, to drizzle on ice cream or yogurt. Simply reheat it for 15-20 seconds in the microwave and it will be ready in less than a minute.
Once the dough of balls are layered in the bundt pan, I leave the pan in a warm spot for a second proof that takes about 60-90 minutes.
After the second proof, I bake the monkey bread for 30 minutes at 350℉ until the top is golden brown. Once it’s done baking, wait for 5 minutes before flipping it. If you wait too long to flip the bread out of the pan, the caramel will cool and harden, and the bread won’t come out of the pan in one piece.
As tempting as it is to dive right in, give the monkey bread a few minutes to cool off. The bread and caramel will be hot and can easily cause burns. While the monkey bread is cooling down, I drizzle the salted tahini caramel over the top before serving.
My tahini salted caramel monkey bread is best served the day that it’s made! There’s nothing better than pulling apart these warm, soft yeasted dough balls covered in sticky caramel sauce. It's insanely delicious. This monkey bread makes the perfect holiday breakfast and doubles as a dessert!
My tahini salted caramel monkey bread is best served the day that it’s made! There’s nothing better than pulling apart these warm, soft yeasted dough balls covered in sticky caramel sauce. It's insanely delicious. This monkey bread makes the perfect holiday breakfast and doubles as a dessert!
Salted tahini caramel monkey bread
Ingredients
Monkey bread dough
- 1 cup milk, warm (about 110℉)
- 4 tbsps unsalted butter (softened), and extra for greasing the pan
- 2 large eggs
- 4 cups all purpose flour plus extra for work surface
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 package of instant yeast, rapid rise
- 1 teaspoon Morton® Coarse Himalayan Pink Salt
Salted tahini caramel sauce
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsps water
- 2 tbsps unsalted butter
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup tahini
- ½ teaspoon Morton® Coarse Himalayan Pink Salt
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
Monkey bread dough
- To make the monkey bread dough, heat milk with butter in a saucepan over low heat until an instant-read thermometer reads 115℉. Remove from heat.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment, add flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Place the yeast opposite from the salt so it doesn’t kill the yeast.
- Beat eggs into the lukewarm milk mixture.
- With the motor running, slowly add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients until a shaggy dough forms.
- Continue to knead the dough for 12-15 minutes until smooth and elastic.
- Transfer the dough to a large, lightly greased bowl and cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and place it in a warm place in the kitchen. Let it rise for 2 hours. You can refrigerate your dough in the fridge overnight if you don’t plan on using it right away.
- When ready to form the dough balls, remove the dough from the bowl, and roll it into a rough 8x10 rectangle.
- Using a bench scraper, knife, or pizza slicer to cut dough into 70-80 pieces. Roll each dough into a ball.
- Place the dough balls into a buttered bundt pan. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of tahini salted caramel.
- Cover the bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place it in a warm area in your kitchen and let the dough balls rise for 60-90 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Unwrap the pan. Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake until the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a platter and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
- Drizzle with tahini salted caramel and garnish with toasted sesame seeds before serving.
Salted tahini caramel
- To make the salted caramel, combine sugar and water and bring to a simmer over medium heat in a heavy saucepan. Once the sugar starts to melt, watch carefully as the sugar darkens, stirring gently to help it melt evenly. When the caramel becomes a dark amber color, remove the pan from heat and immediately but slowly add in the cream, butter, and tahini. The mixture will steam and bubble up so be careful not to burn yourself.
- When the bubbling subsides, gently whisk to completely blend everything into the caramel. If you see lumps of hardened caramel, put the pan over low heat and stir until the caramel is melted. Once the caramel is completely smooth, stir in the salt. Set aside and let the salted caramel cool.
Isa
So delicious with the tahini sauce! The step by step instructions were very helpful.