Baking Monkey Bread With Kids
Baking Monkey Bread with kids is fun and easy! Try out this bread recipe of ours with your kids and pair it with a #bookandagame!
Monkey Bread starts with a buttery-egg dough, that you knead until smooth and satiny, then rolled out and cut into shapes that are dipped into butter, and sugar and cinnamon, then stacked and baked.
It's very fun for little hands!
Paring this baking activity with one of our kid's favorite books; Curious George builds an igloo was a fun bonus, and we realized that this book was perfect to read while making Monkey Bread!
As Curious George learns how to stack ice to make an igloo we were stacking bread!
While we waited for the bread to rise, we played the game Animal Upon Animal, which is a fun stacking game with wooden animals pieces. The kids enjoy this game, and love seeing them fall!
Monkey Bread Recipe
Ingredients Needed:
- 1 pkg of active dry yeast
- 1/4 cups of warm water
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 cup of melted butter
- 3 Eggs
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp of sugar
- 4 cups of all-purpose flour
Toppings
- Melted Butter
- Cinnamon and sugar blend
Tools needed:
- Two large bowls
- Bench knife
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Coffee cake pan with a hole, two loaf pans, large baking dish or skillet!
Grab This Book + Game:
The Method for Baking Monkey Bread with Kids:
Warm your milk and butter in the microwave in a glass measuring cup and mix. Place yeast in warm water and prove. You can add a pinch of sugar. I like to mix it with a fork and let it prove.
Into your medium bowl add your milk and butter, and then crack in your 3 eggs and whisk until smooth.
Add in your yeast and water and mix.
Slowly add in your flour 1 or two cups at a time.
This time I used a sifter/measuring cup and it helped make the dough very light and smooth.
Whisk your batter in the bowl until your batter becomes more of a dough.
Then switch to your spatula and continue mixing and adding flour.
When you have added about 3 1/2 cups of flour, and your dough is coming together, now is the time to turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
Knead for 10 minutes until your dough is smooth and silly.
Have your kids join in!
Our kids love to help at this time when they get to kneed and use a bench knife because it's really fun to use and it helps when your dough is still a bit too sticky to touch.
Once your dough is smooth and silky, place into a large oiled bowl and pat the top with butter.
Cover with a plastic wrap and place in a warm place for 90 minutes until doubled in size.
When your dough has risen, punch down and knead slightly.
It is incredibly soft and buttery!
Roll out to about 3/4 of an inch (ours was a bit thicker than that!) and use a circle cookie cutter and use all the dough.
Prepare your chosen pan with oil.
Melt your butter. Mix your sugar and cinnamon.
Baking Monkey Bread with Kids: 2 Ways
1st Option: Plain Butter
Dip your bead rounds into the butter and then place into your chosen prepared pan.Layer as much as you can. We enjoyed the monkey bread with one layer and two. If you go for two layers, make sure your pan is very tall as the bread does continue to rise a lot!
2nd Option: Butter with Sugar & Cinnamon
Dip your bread rounds into the butter, and then dip them into your sugar and cinnamon. Layer into your chosen prepared pan, and let rise again, in a warm place for about 45 minutes. This is the time to read the monkey books, and play games!
If you are using a coffee cake pan with a hole, prepare the same with oil, and stack around and around. In the end, we tried to loaf pans with two variations.
Bake Your Monkey Bread
In a preheated 350F oven bake your monkey bread for 35 -40 minutes, or until nicely browned and your loaf sounds hollow when thumped.
Once your Monkey Bread has baked and cooled, you can enjoy them with a storybook, a game, and a glass of milk!
Related Monkey Books + Games We Love:
Thanks for reading today!Til next time,Continue building your masterpiece with scissors and glue and monkey bread too!~Alexandra
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy one of these:
Polar Vortex Cinnamon Rolls
Quick-Chill Gingerbread Cookies
The Best Christmas Ricotta Cookies