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Monkey bread (also known by other names including plucking cake, pull-apart bread, and bubble bread) is a soft, sweet, sticky
The origin of the term "monkey bread" comes from the pastry being a finger food; the consumer would pick apart the bread as a
pastry
Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ...
served in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
for breakfast or as a treat. It consists of pieces of soft baked dough sprinkled with cinnamon. It is often served at fairs
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks.
Types
Variations of fairs incl ...
and festival
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...
s.
Name
The origin of the term "monkey bread" comes from the pastry being a finger food; the consumer would pick apart the bread as a monkey
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...
would.
Origins
What most people know as monkey bread today in the United States is actually the Hungarian dessert ''arany galuska
Arany Galushka (or Aranygaluska) is a traditional Hungarian dessert consisting of balls of yeast dough (''galuska''). The balls are rolled in melted butter, and then rolled in a mixture of sugar and crushed nuts (traditionally, walnuts), assemb ...
'' ("golden dumpling"). Dating back to the 1880s in Hungarian literature, Hungarian immigrants brought this dish with them when they immigrated to America and began introducing it into the country's food landscape when Hungarian and Hungarian Jewish
The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...
bakeries began selling it in the mid-twentieth century.
In 1972, a cookbook published by Betty Crocker included a recipe for ''arany galuska'', which they referred to as "Hungarian Coffee Cake". As it became more popular in America, ''arany galuska'' came to be confused with monkey bread in which the balls of dough are not dipped in cinnamon and sugar but only in butter. "Monkey bread" soon became the more common name for this Hungarian Jewish dessert.
Recipes for the bread first appeared in American women's magazine
This is a list of women's magazines from around the world. These are magazines that have been published primarily for a readership of women.
Currently published
*'' 10 Magazine'' (UK - distributed worldwide)
*''Al Jamila'' (Saudi Arabia)
*'' All ...
s and community cookbooks in the 1950s. During the 1980s, Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress and First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was the second wife of president Ronald Reagan.
Reagan was born in Ne ...
popularized serving monkey bread during Christmas by making it a staple of the Reagan White House Christmas.
Preparation
The bread is made with pieces of sweet yeast dough (often frozen), which are baked in a cake pan at high heat after first being individually covered in melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Chopped pecans are also commonly added. It is traditionally served hot so that the baked segments can be easily torn away with the fingers and eaten by hand.See also
*List of buns
This is a list of buns. A bun is a small, sometimes sweet, bread, or bread roll. Though they come in many shapes and sizes, they are most commonly hand-sized or smaller, with a round top and flat bottom.
Buns
A
* Anpan - A bun that is filled, us ...
* List of pastries
This is a list of pastries, which are small buns made using a stiff dough enriched with fat. Some dishes, such as pies, are made of a pastry casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savory ingredients.
There are fiv ...
References
{{pastries Food and drink introduced in the 19th century Breads Pastries