Pumpkin Pull Apart Monkey Bread with Maple Glaze

In a large stand mixer bowl, with mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, stir milk, water, yeast and sugar together. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes to proof the yeast. If mixture is foamy, then you can continue. (If nothing happens, then odds are your yeast is no good, or you killed it with hot water and milk! Try to get your water and milk to be warm to the touch, like baby bath water.)

Stir in salt, egg, butter, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and half of the flour and mix. With mixer on, pour in remaining flour bit by bit until dough pulls away from the sides and is sticky but when touched doesn’t really stick to your hands. (For me, that was 2 tablespoons shy of 3 cups of flour.) Once you reach this stage, turn mixer on for 4-5 minutes to knead the dough.

Then, lightly grease the dough and bowl and cover it with a tea towel and allow dough to rise for 1 hour. Stick it somewhere warm and draft-free.

Lightly grease a bundt or angel food cake* pan with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

Create a coating station by placing sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and melting the butter in another bowl. Set both bowl near your work surface. Punch down dough and remove it from bowl to your work station. Cut dough into small pieces about 1 tablespoon in size. Roll in butter, coat in cinnamon sugar and place into the prepared pan. Repeat until no dough remains. If there is extra butter or sugar, pour it over the top of the dough pieces in the pan. Cover pan with plastic wrap and let it rise another hour in a warm spot in your kitchen.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

When it’s finished rising, bake monkey bread for 25 minutes or until the top begins to brown slightly. Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes.

While monkey bread is cooling, prepare glaze by mixing powdered sugar, maple syrup, half-and-half and vanilla together in a small bowl until smooth.

Remove warm pull apart pieces onto a serving dish and drizzle with glaze. Serve warm.

*I used an angel food cake pan that had a removable bottom and some of the butter and sugar mixture leaked out of the bottom and made a mess of my oven! If you are going to use a similar pan, make sure to place the pan on a baking sheet, or wrap the bottom of the pan with foil.