Coconut Monkey Bread

I love monkey bread for the sheer pull-apart factor. This bread isn't as sweet as traditional monkey bread, but rather slightly sweet with just enough coconut flavor to have it be eaten for breakfast, dessert or without the crumb topping and served savory for dinner. In fact, you could bake this recipe up as rolls instead of a loaf, minus the topping and they would be an excellent substitute for Hawaiian Rolls. Here I tried to infuse coconut into every bit of the recipe I could.

One big loaf of soft bread infused with coconut flavor in every corner, made to be pulled apart in bite sized chunks.

Coconut Bread
makes 1-9" loaf
2/3 cup coconut milk
2/3 cup water
2 tbl melted coconut oil
1/2 banana, mashed
4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
3 tbl untoasted shredded coconut
4 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt

topping-
2 tbl melted coconut oil
1 tbl water
3 tbl all-purpose flour
2 tbl organic brown sugar
3 tbl untoasted shredded coconut

Attach a dough hook to a counter top mixer and add the coconut milk, water, oil and mashed banana. Mix to combine. Next add the flour, sugar, coconut and yeast. On low speed, mix until it just forms a ball of dough then add the salt. Knead for 5-8 minutes until the dough is smooth and only slightly sticky.
Place in a greased bowl, cover and sit in a warm spot to rise for 1 hour or until doubled.
Turn the dough out into a work surface and divide the dough into 2 pieces. Then divide each piece into 8 smaller pieces, making 16 total pieces. Roll tightly into balls. Place 8 balls into a greased loaf pan, then place the other 8 on top. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for 1 more hour.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Assemble the topping.
Combine the water and oil in a small bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and mix with a fork into crumbs.
Top the bread with all of the coconut mixture and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let rest for 10 minutes before removing from the loaf pan.