The Editors at Cooking Light found this ooey-gooey bread absolutely addictive. Sent to us by Rita M. Newton of Waukon, Iowa, it calls for frozen bread dough, which means no fooling around with yeast. (From our January/February 1995 issue)
I used my own bread dough recipe, but other than that, followed the recipe to the letter. Don't be afraid of the sugar hardening as it rises, just put it in the oven...it softens right back up. Since there is a small amount of butter, the hardening is natural, but I wonder if adding cream of tartar or some corn syrup would fix this problem. Not that it's really a problem. Come on, this is virtually a fat free recipe with an extremely rich flavor/texture. It doesn't taste like it's light. Actually, in my opinion, this is softer and richer than any monkey bread I've tasted with the typical amounts of butter used. Fantastic. Nice job, Cooking Light. For an Orange Monkey bread, I think I would put 1-2 cups of orange marmalade on the bottom of the pan, put the dough pieces in, and then pour the sugar mixture {made with orange juice instead of milk} over the dough pieces, as called for in the original recipe. I'd probably add the zest of several oranges to the mixture as well.
this recipe is sooo good! I don't think you miss the extra fat in this 'light' recipe. I often make this for brunch and its always a hit.
This recipe is good, but if you really want amazing monkey bread, try Oprah's recipe! I made some last night, and it was soooo amazing! Here's the site if you guys want to try it out: http://monkeybreadrecipes.blogspot.com
