Valentine is coming!!! Yeaay time for more red-pink-purple themed dessert.

I love making a themed dessert, and for valentine I came up with this red velvet monkey bread filled with Cream Cheese and drizzled with cream cheese strawberry yogurt for good measure.

Ow yeah it does sounds awesome. And there’s a secret ingredient on it that will makes this extra fluffy.

Yep! Sweet potatoes. Don’t believe it? Wait ’till you try and make some.

Usually, potatoes or sweet potatoes are used in making a fluffy yummy doughnut and I thought, why not make it into a monkey bread?

So boil or roast the sweet potatoes then go ahead and mash them until smooth.

Remember to mashed the sweet potatoes first then weigh it into the exact amount.

And for the rest of the ingredients are
Flour, mashed sweet potates, coco powder, butter, egg, yeast, salt, sugar, warm water and red food colouring.

First thing first is to activate the yeast, pour in half of the warm water (mine has already been mixed with the food colouring) and a tablespoon of sugar. Leave it until it started to bubble.

Next, combine the flour with the coco powder, salt and sugar in a big bowl.

Once combined, rub in the butter into the flour.

Next add the mashed sweet potatoes and continue to roughly mix it in.

Make a well then pour in the warm water, food colouring and activated yeast.
Knead the dough until it no longer sticks to the bowl (it might be still a little tacky).

Rub some oil (I use vegetable oil) all over the dough just to prevent it from sticking to anything.

Let it proof for about 1 hour in room temperature or 30 minutes in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

Now on to the Cream Cheese Filling.

Suuuper simple. Just mix together softened cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract.

Whisk them until all smooth and creamy!

Put in the fridge until ready to use.

Now on to the assembly!

We got the red velvet bread dough, cream cheese filling, melted butter and the coating sugar.

Oh, also don’t forget to butter your cake pan so you can get it out easily.

Take a piece of the dough, put a small dollop then try your best to wrap the cream cheese.

And yes you WILL messed up the first ones but you’ll get the hang of it.

Coat the bread pieces with the coating sugar.

The coating sugar is super simple to make too, just mix skimmed milk powder, vanilla powder and icing sugar then add 3 drops of red food colouring. Then just mix everything the best that you could, I found that by rubbing them together is easier. You may get some lumps, just sift them to get rid of it.

OR

Take some coloured sugar then mix it with milk and vanilla powder.
Or just use regular granulated sugar and mix.
I just don’t want the red colour to fade by the white powder.

Throw the pieces to the pan. I put some dollops of cream cheese filling in between and drizzle a bit of butter on top.

This one is missing something… Something sweet.. Cheesy.. And yummy..

Oh yea by the way this is why buttering a generous amount of butter on the pan is important, I had a bit of trouble getting my monkey bread out since there are some cream cheese filling poking out.

Yup! It needs a yummy sweet icing.

This one is made from the leftover cheese filling, mix with a bit of strawberry yogurt to balance out the sweetness and a bit of milk to thin it down.

Ow yeah, this is the money shot 📷

Drizzle drizzle.. Loads and loads of it!

Look at that vibrant colour!

Perfect to share with your love ones.. ❤️

And the bread pieces are soft with the smooth cream cheese inside.

Oh yeah, this one could be my valentine.

I love how the red pops out and make it extra special.

And that oozing cream cheese icing…

Take a piece and share it with your love ones!

In case you’re wondering the inside looks like, here you go! Fluffy and soft bread. Well it is a bit hard to rip the bread with one hand and take a photo with the other one.

Happy valentine and have a good one everybody! ❤️

Red Velvet Monkey Bread with Cream Cheese Yogurt Icing
Makes 30cm bunt pan size monkey bread

Sweet potato bread dough ingredients
• 500 g bread flour
• 75g sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp coco powder
• 7 g bread yeast
• 175 ml warm water (around body temperature)
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 300 g mashed sweet potato
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp red food colouring

Cream Cheese filling & icing ingredients
• 250 g cream cheese (at room temperature)
• 150 g icing sugar (i)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 100 g icing sugar (ii)
• 2 tbsp yogurt (I used strawberry flavour)
• 1 tbsp milk

• 50 g butter (melted)
• 50 g milk powder
• 150 g icing sugar
• a pinch of vanilla powder
• 5-7 drops red food colouring OR pink coloured sugar

How To Make
1) Activate the yeast by pouring half of the water into the yeast and add 1 tbsp of sugar into it. Leave it until bubbly.
2) In a large bowl, mix the flour, the rest of the sugar, salt and coco powder until all combined.
3) Rub in the butter just until it has roughly incorporated.
4) Add the mashed sweet potatoes and roughly combine it.
5) Make a well in the middle then pour in the activated yeast, the rest of the warm water and the food colouring. Knead until the dough has come together and becomes soft.
6) Oil the bowl then let the dough proof in it for at least 1 hour in room temperature or 30 minutes in a warm oven (around 70°C).

7) Make the cream cheese filling by whisking together the cream cheese, icing sugar (i) and vanilla extract until smooth. Set aside around ½ a cup of the cream cheese filling for the icing. Put in the fridge for about 30 minutes – 1 hour to harden it a bit.

8) Make the coating sugar by mixing the milk powder, icing sugar and vanilla until combined then add the food colouring and rub the sugar and colouring together until it changes colour, sift any clumps (or leave it, it doesn’t matter).

9) Coat the pan with generous amount of butter.
10) Punch back the dough, take a bit of it, flatten it then put a little dollop of cream cheese in the middle. Pull the sides of the dough to the top then seal it. Dip the ball of dough into melted butter then the coating sugar. Put it into the buttered pan, repeat until the dough has all gone.
11) Bake at a preheated oven at 180°C or 360°F for around 30 – 40 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool slightly before removing it from the pan.

12) Make the cheese icing by mixing the cream cheese filling with icing sugar (ii), yogurt and milk.

13) Once slightly cooled, take it out of the oven then drizzle the top with cream cheese icing.