Caramel Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Monkey Bread

Listen. I do not believe any sort of nut needs to be anywhere near a bread or a cookie. It's just wrong. You try to put nuts in a pumpkin or banana bread, and we've got a problem. I actually like the taste of pecans, almonds, pistachios, peanuts, and other kinds of nuts. But they have their place. Like on this monkey bread, because the toasted pecans are embedded in the caramel topping. That makes it ok. It's one of my rules.

This is a Southern Living recipe I ripped out of a special edition publication of pumpkin recipes a few years back. I filed it away and just decided to try it. I used to think monkey bread would be too complicated. To my surprise, it was very easy! I just needed a little courage to try it. And there's no sourdough needed.

for a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Ingredients:

¾ cup milk

1 pkg. active dry yeast

¾ cup canned pumpkin

¼ cup melted butter

¼ cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. salt

41/4 to 4 ¾ cups all purpose flour

Recipe Caramel Syrup

1 cup chopped toasted pecans

¾ cup sugar

1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice (or ground cinnamon)

¼ cup melted butter

directions:

1. In a small saucepan heat milk just until warm. In a large bowl, combine warm milk and yeast, stir to dissolve yeast. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes or until foamy.

2. Add next 5 Ingredients (through salt) to yeast mixture. Beat with a mixer on medium until combined. Add 2 cups of the flour; beat on low 30 seconds, scraping bowl as needed. Beat on medium 3 minutes. Stir In as much of the remaining flour as you can. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead In enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that Is smooth and elastic (about 3 minutes).

3. Place dough In a lightly greased bowl;. turning to  grease surface of dough. Cover and let rise In a warm place until nearly double In size (45-60 min.)

4. Generously grease and flour a 10" bundt pan. Prepare caramel syrup. Sprinkle ½ cup of the pecans in the bottom of the prepared pan. Drizzle ½ cup of the caramel syrup over pecans.

5. In a small bowl combine the ¾ cup sugar and the pumpkin pie spice. Place ¼ cup melted butter in another small bowl. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 32 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Dip balls into melted butter, then roll In the sugar-spice mixture to coat. Arrange 16 of the balls over the caramel syrup in pan. Sprinkle remaining ½ cup pecans and drizzle remaining ½ cup caramel syrup over top. Top with remaining coated balls. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (about 45 min).

6. Preheat oven to 350°. Bake 40-45 min. or until golden brown. If needed, cover bread with foil last 10 min of baking to prevent overbrowning. Let stand In pan 10 min., then invert onto a serving platter. Let cool 20 min. Serve warm.