Monkey bread (also known by other names including plucking cake, pull-apart bread, and bubble bread) is a soft, sweet, sticky

pastry Pastry refers to a variety of Dough, doughs (often enriched with fat or eggs), as well as the sweet and savoury Baking, baked goods made from them. The dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often descr ...

served in the

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for breakfast or as a treat. It consists of pieces of soft baked dough sprinkled with cinnamon. It is often a midmorning/breakfast food and usually 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. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

and

festival A festival is an event 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, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

Name

The origin of the term "monkey bread" is unknown. Some food historians suggest that it comes from the pastry being a finger food, and that those eating it pick apart the bread with their hands as a

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

might. Others suggest that it comes from the pastry's resemblance to the monkey puzzle tree ''

Araucaria araucana ''Araucaria araucana'', commonly called the monkey puzzle tree, monkey tail tree, pewen, pehuen pine or piñonero, is an evergreen tree belonging to the family Araucariaceae and growing to a trunk diameter of and a height of . It is native to ...

''.

Origins

What most people know as monkey bread today in the United States is actually the Hungarian dessert '' arany galuska'' ("golden dumpling"). Dating back to the 1880s in Hungarian literature, Hungarian immigrants brought this dish with them when they emigrated 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 woman, women. Currently published *''10 Magazine (UK), 10 Magazine'' (UK – distributed worldwide) *''Al Jam ...

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 who was the first lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, as the second wife of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan was born in ...

popularized serving monkey bread during Christmas by making it a staple of the Reagan White House Christmas. Mrs. Reagan acquired the recipe from her fellow actress

Zasu Pitts ZaSu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, starred in many silent film drama film, dramas, such as Erich von Stroheim's 1924 epic ''Greed (1924 film), Greed'', along wi ...

. According to food historian Gil Marks, she arranged for monkey bread to be served to

President Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party and became an important figure in ...

on the night before his testimony before Congress for the Iran-contra hearings. As legend goes, Ronald Reagan said, “Mommy, I may go to prison, but I’ll always remember this monkey bread.”

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.

References

{{pastries Food and drink introduced in the 19th century Breads Pastries

Name

Origins

Preparation

See also

References