Maple-Cinnamon-Walnut Monkey Bread, with Apples

I saw a recipe for maple apple cinnamon buns a few months ago, and it inspired me to create this deliciously sticky brunch (or dessert!) recipe. It’s a quick bread, so there’s no waiting for the dough to rise, which means it’s actually pretty quick to put together and bake. And just like my pumpkin cinnamon buns, there’s corn starch in the dough, so they’re extra fluffy, which I like!

The maple flavour is subtle but adds a nice note to the brown sugar flavour. My favourite bits are the crunchy sides. Mmm…buttery, crunchy, maple-y bites! You can double the recipe to make a much more sizeable monkey bread, but you’d need to have a large family to eat it all! Or the metabolism of a racehorse. Neither of which I have.

Maple Cinnamon Walnut Monkey Bread with Apples

Dough:

• 2 c. flour
• 2 tbsp. corn starch
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 c. butter
• 3/4 c. milk 

Everything Else:

• 1/4 c. maple syrup
• 4 tbsp. butter, melted
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 c. walnuts, chopped
• 2 apples, peeled and cut into little chunks

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together, and cut in the butter until it looks like peas. Mix in the milk, and set aside the dough. It’ll be lumpy and wet, but that’s ok!

Mix the melted butter and maple syrup. Set aside. Mix the brown sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon and set aside.

Get a bundt pan and put it in your workspace. Roll the dough into little chunks, the size of Timbits (doughnut holes, for all you non-Canadians out there). Take each little ball of dough, and roll it in the butter/maple syrup mixture, and then in the cinnamon/brown sugar/nutmeg mixture. Place in the bundt pan. Repeat until you have a ring of little balls all around the base of the pan. Sprinkle half the walnuts and half the apple chunks over them. Repeat with remaining dough balls, and remaining walnuts and apples chunks. If there is any of the brown sugar mixture left, sprinkle that on the very top, and pour the remaining maple syrup and butter mixture over the very top.  

Bake in a 400 degree oven for half an hour, and then let sit for at least 15 minutes so that the syrup cools and holds the dish together. Loosen the edges of the bread, place a plate on top and invert. Remove the pan and voila, your fancy-looking dish is done!

You can drizzle a simple glaze on top like I did, but it’s probably healthier not to. I just mixed up some icing sugar with a dash of milk and vanilla extract and drizzled it with a fork right on top of the warm monkey bread.

Then the DH and I dug in! Only half is left now. I think I’ll freeze the rest, because after eating that much, all I can think of is floating in a cool vat of iced cucumber water. So cool. So cleansing. There must be a spa treatment like that out there! *grin*

Next Post: Baked Zucchini Coins — a low-fat and tasty way to satisfy your French fry craving while eating green veggies.