By Halloween and Caleb's second — though his first with understanding that something is happening. CJ sent photographs of Caleb in a lion costume that Shanice found, complete with a mane. He stood in the doorway of their house for the first trick-or-treating attempt in his neighborhood and looked at the other small costumed people with an expression of intense curiosity and then held out his candy bucket to them, which is backwards from the protocol but shows good instincts toward generosity. They redirected him gently and he received his first piece of candy with great seriousness. He looked at it for a while. He has not yet had candy. He does not know what he has received. He is going to find out.
I made pumpkin bread this week — two loaves, the kind with the cinnamon and the cloves and the orange zest, which makes it something more complicated and interesting than the average pumpkin bread. I gave one loaf to Dorothea, who receives all my loaf gifts with the same dignified gratitude she brings to everything. She gave me a jar of her homemade apple butter in exchange, which she had made the week before from her cousin's orchard apples. The neighborhood exchange economy continues to function perfectly. I put the apple butter on cornbread at dinner and thought about how much of my best eating comes not from my own kitchen but from this network of people who give each other things from their gardens and their ovens without keeping score. That is also a form of table. A wider one than the one in my dining room but the same idea.
Making two loaves is always the right call — one to give and one to keep — and this bread machine pumpkin monkey bread is the reason I’ve started thinking about pumpkin bread as a gift in pieces rather than a slice. Pull-apart bread is generous by design; it invites people to take what they need without ceremony, which feels exactly right for a season that is already so much about passing things around. Caleb holding out his candy bucket to the other children before he understood the protocol is the same instinct, really. Here is a thing. Take some.
Bread Machine Pumpkin Monkey Bread
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 2 hr 50 min (includes bread machine dough cycle) | Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup warm milk (110°F)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups bread flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 standard packet)
- For the coating:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- For the glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2–3 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Load the bread machine. Add pumpkin puree, warm milk, softened butter, egg, and vanilla to the bread machine pan. Spoon flour over the wet ingredients. Add sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Make a small well in the top of the flour and add the yeast. Select the Dough cycle and start the machine.
- Prepare the pan. Grease a 10-inch Bundt pan generously with butter or nonstick spray. In a shallow bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves for the coating. Stir until well mixed.
- Shape the pieces. When the dough cycle completes, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Pinch off pieces of dough roughly 1 1/2 inches in diameter and roll each into a ball. You should get approximately 36–40 balls.
- Coat and layer. Roll each dough ball in the butter and brown sugar mixture, turning to coat all sides. Arrange the coated balls in layers in the prepared Bundt pan, staggering them as you go. Pour any remaining coating mixture over the top.
- Let rise. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm place until the balls are puffed and nearly reach the top of the pan, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Bake. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake for 28–32 minutes, until deep golden brown on top and the bread sounds hollow when tapped. If the top browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes.
- Cool and invert. Let the monkey bread rest in the pan for exactly 5 minutes — no longer, or the caramel coating will set and stick. Place a large serving plate over the pan and invert quickly. Let the pan sit inverted for 30 seconds so the caramel drips down over the bread, then lift the pan away.
- Make the glaze. Whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth, adding milk one tablespoon at a time until you reach a pourable but not watery consistency. Drizzle over the warm monkey bread. Serve immediately — pull-apart style, no cutting required.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 340 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 54g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 215mg