Description
Kids will love to help with this messy fun recipe. Laced with lemon and candied orange and topped with lemon cream cheese icing, these are refreshing and light.
Ingredients
Scale
Overnight Roll Dough
- 1/4 cup warm water (59 mL)
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (50 g)
- 3/4 cup whole milk (177 mL)
- 4 Tablespoons butter (57 g)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs, cold
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 2 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (360 g)
For assembling the monkey bread
- 1/2 cup butter (113 g), melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 g)
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup finely chopped candied orange peel (optional)
Lemon Cream cheese icing
- 2 oz cream cheese, at room temperature (56 g)
- 6 Tablespoons powdered sugar (45 g)
- 2 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature (28 g)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice (from about 1/2 the lemon you grated the zest from)
Instructions
Make the 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.
- Warm the milk in a small pan on the stove until you see bubbles around the edges. Cut up the butter and add it to the pan to melt.
- Crack your eggs and use a fork to whip them into the butter and milk mixture, then add in the sugar, salt, and vanilla, then stir 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, then pour in the milk mixture then the yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to make a rough dough.
- After that, with a dough hook on your stand mixer, beat the dough for about 5 minutes on low speed (2 on a Kitchen Aid) until you get an elastic sticky dough that pulls away in strands from the sides of the bowl.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set in the fridge to rise overnight or 4 hours minimum.
Assemble the monkey bread:
- Line 2 muffin tins with a total of 18 muffin liners.
- Pour the melted butter into a small bowl.
- Grate the lemon zest with a microplane grater or other fine hand grater. Work to get just the yellow off, and stop when you see the white pith.
- Pour the sugar into a small bowl, then rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips. This will release more of the lemon’s essential oils, making for a brighter lemon taste.
- Scrape the cold dough onto a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle the top with a little more flour.
- Divide the dough into 18 pieces with a bench scraper.
- Lightly flour one of the pieces, then divide it into 12-15 small pieces. They will look like tiny pillows.
- Roll each tiny piece of dough in your hands quickly to round the shape slightly.
- Hold several balls of dough in your hands, nestling them in your fingers so that they don’t stick together. Quickly dunk the balls in the melted butter, then roll them in the lemon sugar.
- Place the balls into the prepared muffin tin.
- Keep on cutting pieces of dough and rolling them in butter and sugar until you’ve filled up all your muffin tins.
- Scatter the candied orange among all the tins.
- Cover the muffins with a clean tea towel and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Towards the end of the 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350F (180 C).
- Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and set.
- Pop the baked muffins out of the tin and let cool on a wire rack while you prepare the icing.
Make the icing:
- Beat all the ingredients together into a smooth thick drizzle consistency.
- Use a fork to drizzle thick stripes of icing across the top of each muffin.
- Muffins are best the day they are made but can be frozen in an airtight bag for up to 1 month.
Notes
Orange Vanilla: Sub in orange juice instead of the lemon juice for an orange-vanilla flavor variation.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Additional Time: 8 hours 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Morning breads
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 225
- Sugar: 20
- Sodium: 191
- Fat: 11
- Saturated Fat: 7
- Unsaturated Fat: 3
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 30
- Fiber: 1
- Protein: 3
- Cholesterol: 49