Description

Bite into a piece of this buttery cinnamon pull apart bread, and you’ll be delighted to bite into tender unbelievably flavorful apple pie filling. Like an apple pie cinnamon roll in miniature form, this is a great bread to bring to any kind of Fall potluck, football party, or brunch.

Ingredients

Scale

Applesauce Roll Dough

1/4 cup warm water (59 mL)
2 tsp instant yeast
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1/4 cup granulated sugar (50 g)
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (homemade or jarred)
4 Tablespoons butter (57 g)
1 teaspoon apple pie spice
3/4 tsp salt)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
3 cups all-purpose flour (390 g)

Apple Pie Filling

1/2 batch Make-Ahead Apple Pie Filling

Assembling the Monkey Bread

1 stick butter (113 g)
½ cup dry breadcrumbs, fine dry, not panko
1 cup light brown sugar (213 g)
2 teaspoons apple pie spice or cinnamon

Equipment

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Instructions

Make the Applesauce Roll Dough

Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water in a small bowl with a pinch of the sugar. Set aside for about 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy.
Melt the butter in a small pan. Crack the eggs and use a fork to whip them into the butter.
Once the eggs are smooth, add in the applesauce, sugar, salt, and vanilla stirring to combine. Check the temperature with your finger (the milk/egg mixture should be just warm to the touch.). Put the flour into a large bowl or your stand mixer bowl. Make a well in the center with your hands, and then pour in the applesauce mixture and the foamy yeast. Stir with a wooden spoon to make a rough dough.

Knead the Dough

Fit your mixer with a dough hook. Knead the dough for about 7 minutes on low speed (2 on a Kitchen Aid
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) until you get an elastic sticky dough that forms into a ball around the hook.
Chill the Dough Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set the dough to rise in the fridge overnight, or at least 4 hours. When you’re ready to make the monkey bread, the cold dough will be visibly puffed into a nice dome.

Make the Apple Pie Filling

Make 1 recipe of Apple Pie Filling. You’ll have leftover filling, so you can make some mini apple pies or have some super luxe oatmeal with apples on top!
Let the filling cool to room temperature before using it, or use it straight from the fridge.

Form the Monkey Bread Pieces

Lightly flour a work surface. Scrape out the cold dough and divide the dough into 24 pieces with your bench scraper
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.
Flatten each piece of dough into a round in the palm of your hand.
Place about 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of each piece of dough.
Fold the dough around the filling, pinching it to seal everything together. Continue filling the dough pieces, leaving them on the counter until you’re ready to assemble.

Dip the Monkey Bread

Melt the butter in a small pan.
Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon (or better, apple pie spice) in a small bowl.
Brush the bundt pan
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with butter. Dust the sides of the pan with breadcrumbs, knocking out the excess breadcrumbs.
Scatter about 1/2 cup of the apple filling on the bottom of the pan along with about 1/4 cup of the cinnamon sugar.
Quickly dip each piece of monkey bread in the butter and then roll it in the cinnamon sugar.
Add the apple filled rolls to the pan.
When you’ve added about half of the dough balls, scatter over another 1/2 cup of apple filling. Finish filling the pan with the rest of the dough balls.

Rise

Cover the bundt pan
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and let the dough rise for about 30 minutes.
Towards the end of the 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C).

Bake

Bake the monkey bread for 25-30 minutes, until the bread is set, and the cinnamon sugar is golden brown and a little crunchy.
Let the pan cool for about 5 minutes and then flip it out onto a serving plate.