Butter pan with 1 tablespoon softened butter and set aside for later.
In a bowl for a stand mixer, mix together milk, melted butter, syrup and yeast. Let sit until yeast is active and bubbly. Then stir in pumpkin and salt. Add flour by the cup and start to mix with dough hook. After dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until dough is shiny and smooth, 6 to 7 minutes. If at any point dough is very sticky, add more flour by the tablespoon.
If you don’t have a mixer, just mix the ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon until the dough forms a rough ball. Then turn out onto a floured surface and knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball, about 5-6 minutes.
3)Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball. Coat large bowl with a sprinkle of flour. Place dough in bowl cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until dough doubles in size, about an hour.
For the filling, grate cheese.
To finish bread, remove the dough from the bowl, and roll into a large 10×14 rectangle. Sprinkle cheese mixture on half of the dough and fold it over. Then roll out again to a square. Using a bench scraper or knife, cut dough into tiny 1 inch pieces.
Melt butter for dipping and stir sugar, chili powder, salt, garlic powder, and pepper in a small bowl.
Dip each dough piece into the melted butter, then dip into the sugar mixture. No need to cover the whole dough ball. Then layer balls in the Bundt pan. Try to stagger the balls so they form a single thing. Occasionally sprinkle balls with extra sugar chili mixture.
Cover the Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and let rise for another hour until the balls are about 2 inches from the top of the pan (at least an hour).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the pan and bake until the top is deep brown, about 35-40 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a late and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
OPTIONAL: Drizzle monkey bread with a simple powdered sugar + water glaze.