Michelle Gayer's Perfect Monkey Bread Will Make You Go Wild

Michelle Gayer is a critically acclaimed pastry chef who runs a beloved bakery in Minneapolis called Salty Tart. She knows how to make a monkey bread so damn delectable that—sorry, not sorry—you'll be picking at it day and night.

A multiple nominee for the James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef award, Gayer is known for using seasonal, local, and organic ingredients in her 400 square-foot bakery.

When she came to the MUNCHIES Test Kitchen recently, Gayer imparted some wisdom on us that is equally applicable to monkey bread as it is to pretty much all other kinds of baking. "People don't follow the recipe," she said. "Go follow the recipe! Recipes are in place for a reason. If you want to be creative, go do it somewhere else."

RECIPE: Monkey Bread

With that in mind, she got to work. First step: Gayer made a milk-based bread, very easily, in a stand mixer. She let the machine do the kneading and then allowed the results to proof, or rest, for an hour.

Gayer said, "We make monkey bread every day and we probably make around 12 a day. Because we make so many croissants, we have all kinds of scrap, we use all the croissant scraps to make our monkey bread." But you can use a homemade milk bread as the base.

While the dough is proofing, make what Gayer affectionately calls "the goo." By that she means a mind-shattering combination of butter, sugars, vanilla, and cinnamon. But here's the catch: "Browning the butter gives it a really nutty aroma and all the milk solids caramelize and get brown and all the bits are the most delicious part of this recipe."

Gayer has a booming laugh, talks fast-fast-fast, and clearly loves to bake. "I do everything fast and on high," she joked, as she browned the butter.

After the dough had rested for an hour, she said, "You have to look for a bounce back. That's when you know the dough is ready."

Gayer then cut the dough into strips or logs. Then she cubed the strips, thereby creating those pickable pieces of what will be monkey bread. "My mom used to make this before church. Because that's what you do in the Midwest. You cook and you go to church."

Gayer then tossed the cubes with sugar and cinnamon and schmeared the cubes with the browned butter. "I want sugar and cinnamon to be around each little ball." The cubes can be of various sizes: "Not too many rules here." One essential is salt: "Salt and sugar are friends," Gayer advises.

Gayer then placed the result in a Bundt pan greased with some browned butter and another hour-and-a-half of proofing followed. She said it was important not to overpack the pan because the dough will double in volume. Any leftover dough can be put in small ramekins and baked therein.

Finally, it was time to bake. Gayer says the key to making good monkey bread is making sure you nail "the ratio of cinnamon, caramel, and sugar to the pieces of dough and how caramelized it is. I don't want the dough to be raw! I like it when all the sugar caramelizes, there's a little bit of crunch, and then there's the dough. People tend to underbake monkey bread because they freak out when it looks brown. Color means flavor, put it back in the oven! Put it back in the oven!"

When asked how Gayer got into baking in the first place, she told us, "I got lucky. At 18, they said you have to go to college and do something and I was like, 'Oh shit. I don't want to go to a four year state school,' because four more years of state school sounded like the most painful thing. Also, Iowa State's colors are yellow and red and I did not want to be walking around in a red and yellow hoodie for the rest of my life. I went to culinary school and got lucky."

After 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven, the monkey bread is ready for picking.

The result? It's so good, it may have you swinging from the trees like some sort of, dare we say, howling primate.

Michelle Gayer is the most critically acclaimed pastry chef currently living in the Twin Cities and is recognized as one of the best in the country. In 2002 and 2010, she received a James Beard "Outstanding Pastry Chef" nomination and has been named "Best Pastry Chef" by the editors of Bon Appetit magazine.