Here's what wikipedia has to say about Monkey Bread:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_bread
And this is a fabulous step-by-step pictoral guide to making traditional Monkey Bread:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/monkey-bread/
Monkey bread is a biscuit based dish - that seems to be about the only thing most folks agree on. Some people think Nancy Regan invented it (she didn't, but did serve it at the White House in the 80s), some people call it a whole lot of other things (bubble cake, pinch loaf, christmas delight, to name a few), and I've found references to Africa, Hungary, and Germany in an attempt to ferret out it's origins. I have no idea what's actually correct. I learned to make it from my sister-in-law.
Most recipes for Monkey Bread involve cinnamon, brown sugar, and nuts over small rounds of biscuit dough, baked in a bundt pan so that you wind up with a ring of munchkin sides bites that pull apart. And it's fabulous in it's traditional form. But it's just one of those things that you can't help but play with - if it's great like this, how would it be savory, with cheese and herbs? Or with fruit and rum? What happens when you don't flip it over? Is it better with icing? Can I make one biscuit's worth in a ramkein? And so began my obsession. Most of my current variations bear very little resemblance to traditional monkey bread...but they're tasty!
