Martha Stewart's Monkey Bread

Total Time: 1 hr 15 mins Preparation Time: 40 mins Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 3 1/2 cups warm milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 1/2 cups firmly packed light-brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Recipe

• 1 lightly coat a 10-inch bundt pan and a medium bowl with (extra) shortening and set aside. place warm water and a pinch of sugar in small bowl. sprinkle with yeast, stir and leave to dissolve 5 minutes.
• 2 place shortening, milk, sugar, salt and egg in another bowl. add yeast mixture to shortening mixture and beat with electric mixture fitted with dough hook until combined.
• 3 slowly add flour, then knead with dough hook 1 minute. transfer dough to greased bowl and leave to rise, covered with cling film, 20 minutes.
• 4 for brown sugar coating, place melted butter in a bowl. in another bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon and nuts. sprinkle tbsp of this mixture into prepared bundt pan.
• 5 cut dough into 1/2 inch pieces. roll into balls. coat dough balls in butter, then sugar mixture and place in prepared bundt pan until all dough is used up. cover with cling film and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• 6 preheat oven to 350 degrees f. bake 30-35 minutes. leave to cool in pan 15 minutes, then invert onto serving plate and cool 20 minutes more.
• 7 for icing, in a small bowl, combine milk and icing sugar and stir until smooth. drizzle over bread, to serve.