Staying Fit
Serves 6 to 8; makes 1 loaf
Total time to prepare: 1 hour 10 minutes
Monkey bread is the first recipe I ever made. In third grade, my homeroom teacher, Miss Larson, invited a bunch of students to her house for a cooking class (where I wore patterned leggings and an oversize Betty Boop T-shirt, my signature third grade look), and I distinctly remember this being the most delicious thing I had ever tasted or smelled. It was impossibly sweet, sticky and buttery. I looked high and low for the original recipe, but it got lost somewhere. So this is it (more or less) from a sense memory with an extra dollop of whimsy thrown in by way of babka-ish fillings. Yes, you can obviously make a fun dough from scratch, but for me, the joy of this dessert is how easy it is. You’re just a few stirs and snips away from childhood nostalgia! You can set this out and have everyone pull from it family-style, or you can let it cool for 10 minutes and slice it up like a babka. Up to you!
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Ingredients
Monkey Bread
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 (16⅓ ounce) tube of refrigerated biscuit dough (I like Pillsbury Original Biscuits)
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (3 ounces) chopped semi-sweet chocolate
- ½ teaspoon flaky sea salt, divided
Sauce
- 6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1½ tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract