Vegan Monkey Bread Dough

1. In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or mix by hand using a wooden spoon), combine 1 cup of the flour, along with the sugar, and yeast.
2. Cut the butter into tablespoon-sized slices and add to a heat-safe measuring glass along with the milk. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each time using your finger. This is to test the temperature as it should be warm but not piping hot. It shouldn’t take more than 1 minute total, and the butter will not fully melt.
3. With the mixer running on medium-low speed, slowly pour in the warm milk mixture. The dough will look very wet, almost like pudding.
4. Begin to mix in the rest of the flour one cup at a time. Sprinkle in the fourth cup gradually, as you may not need all of it (I used about 3 1/2 cups total). The dough is ready when it no longer appears wet on the surface and it turns piecey and shaggy.
5. Now preheat the oven to its lowest temperature setting (about 170F).
6. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use your hands to knead and bring the dough together inside the bowl. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes, or until it forms a smooth mass that is no longer sticky. If the dough is too sticky and unmanageable, work in small amounts of flour until it comes together.
7. Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place it at the bottom of the bowl. Press a finger into the surface of the dough. If it spring back slowly, it’s ready. If it doesn’t, keep kneading.
8. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. The oven should also be preheated by now. Turn the oven off and place the bowl inside. This creates a warm spot for the dough to proof for 1 hour. The dough should double in size.
9. Once proofed, punch down the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Pat it into a rough rectangle shape and cut into small 1-inch pieces.
10. In a heat-safe measuring glass, melt 1/2 cup of butter in the microwave. In another dish, combine the 1 cup of sugar with 2 tsp cinnamon.
11. Grease or butter the bottom of an 11″ or 12″ cast iron skillet and preheat the oven to 350F.
12. Take a piece of the dough and pull and stretch the surface of the dough to gather it underneath the piece. The goal is to form a ball with a smooth surface, with a gathering of dough underneath. Pinch together the gathered pieces underneath and dunk the ball into the melted butter. Roll in the cinnamon sugar and place in the skillet, gathered seam down. (To see how this looks, watch the video above this recipe card)
13. All of the dough balls should fit snug inside the pan, but not overly crowded or smooshed. Depending on the size of the skillet, you may have a few pieces of dough left over.
14. If there is any butter leftover from dunking, measure to assess how much is there. If it’s short of 1/4 cup, melt enough butter to make up the difference. Then to the 1/4 cup of melted butter, mix in the 2 tbsp of brown sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla.
15. Pour over the monkey bread and then move around the skillet to get an even distribution of the butter mixture.
16. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and evenly puffed.
17. Allow the monkey bread to cool for about 20 minutes.

Icing

1. Whisk together all of the ingredients to form a glue-like consistency. If it’s too thin, and one tablespoon of sugar at a time until it’s there. If it’s too thick, do the same but with 1 tsp of milk at a time.
2. Drizzle over the monkey bread after the 20 minutes, then dig in!