Maple Bacon Monkey Bread

By barbgreenfield

Maple Bacon Monkey Bread.. (try saying that five times fast…) I got the idea for this when I went to a doughnut shop in Utah that had maple bars with bacon on top. I started thinking of other sweet things I could add bacon to and this idea popped into mind! This was SO deliciously gooey and good.. words can’t even describe. I made it as a side dish the other day and it was completely devoured before our main dish came out of the oven. This would perfect to have for breakfast on Christmas day. I assure you that this is what I will be making Christmas morning! (As an added note… feel free to use frozen Rhodes rolls instead of making your own dough.. just thaw the rolls and cut into thirds to make your dough balls)

Ingredients

• For the dough:
• 1 pkg. yeast
• 1/4 c. warm water
• 1 1/4 c. warm milk
• 1/3 c. butter, melted
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. salt
• 5 c. flour
• Other ingredients:
• 1/2 c. butter, melted
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2-3 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. maple syrup
• 1 (11oz) pkg. center-cut bacon, cooked & crumbled

Preparation

Step 1

Instructions

In a large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, butter, sugar, eggs, salt and half of the flour (2 1/2 c.) Beat on medium speed for 3 min. Stir in remaining flour until it forms a firm dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 7-8 minutes). Place in greased bowl and turn over to get the whole dough ball greasy. Cover and let rise for about an hour or until dough doubles in size.
When dough is done, punch it down and form into 35-40 small balls. In a pie pan or shallow bowl, combine sugars and cinnamon. Place melted butter in another bowl. Dip balls in butter, then roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture.
Pour about 1/3 of the maple syrup in a bundt pan and sprinkle with 1/3 of the bacon crumbles. Place 20 or so of the dough balls in the bundt pan. Top with another 1/3 of the syrup and bacon. Add remaining dough balls and top with remaining syrup and bacon. Cover and let rise about 40 minutes, until doubled in size again.
Bake at 350-degrees for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown (if they are browning too fast you can loosely cover it with tin foil). Cool for 10 minutes, then turn up-side down onto a serving plate.