Homemade Monkey Bread with Caramel Sauce.

Monkey Bread made completely from scratch.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Stumbling upon quaint little bakeries while venturing through new parts of town are what I like to call “happy accidents.”  I’m a foodie.  Actually, no. I’m a dessertie.

Fate was by my side last week because I was instantly inspired to make my own monkey bread at home after spying one in a local bakery.

Monkey bread is a sweet, sticky, gooey pastry often baked in a bundt pan and served for breakfast or as a decadent snack.  The bread is made with pieces (or balls) of sweet yeast dough baked together with melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar.  It tastes like cinnamon rolls, but better (trust me). To eat it, you tear the bread piece by piece – sort of like how little monkeys pick at their food.

In short, monkey bread is heaven on earth.

Today I’m bringing you the best of the best.  It is a completely from-scratch recipe for monkey bread. A warm, extremely doughy, cinnamon and sugar spiced, butter-laden confection just begging to be dug into.  I completely covered the bread in pecans (optional!) and an easy homemade caramel sauce because… why not?  Go big or go home.

Reasons to make this monkey bread right now:

• The balls of dough are beyond soft.
• Softer than any sweet roll I’ve ever made before.
• Fluffier than any piece of homemade bread I’ve eaten before.
• Stickier than any sticky bun I’ve tasted.
• Each ball of dough is hand-rolled into melted butter and cinnamon sugar. 
• Each piece is dripping in caramel and glazed pecans.
• Save time by making it the night before.

Wow.

I like to call this monkey bread “sticky bun cake.”  Because it truly tastes like sticky buns rolled into little balls and baked together like a cake. And that’s essentially what it is, anyway!

It  may look tricky, but this is truly not that hard to make. Here’s how I did it:

Start with 1 standard package (2 and 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast. For my monkey bread, I used Red Star Platinum. I am in no way compensated for saying this but I swear by Red Star, especially their superior Platinum line.  Guaranteed fluffiness and volume. It will also save you time.  See step #5 in the recipe instructions.

Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water, about 110F-115F.  I did not take the water temperature; I just aimed for lukewarm. To be precise, I suggest using a thermometer.  Once you stir the yeast around in the water and allow it to foam and dissolve, add the rest: 1 and 1/4 cup of 2% milk (lukewarm at 110F – 115F degrees), 1/3 cup melted butter, 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 eggs, salt, and 3 cups of all-purpose flour.

For the milk: please use 2% or higher milkfat. No less.

Beat with a handheld or stand mixer until a soft dough forms.  Then, manually stir in more flour to form a firm dough.  I used 5 cups of flour total.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it until it is smooth and elastic; about 6-8 minutes of kneading. The dough is SO soft and easy to work with- you are going to love it.  Careful not to over-knead the dough, which will lend tough and chewy monkey bread. You want soft and fluffy, so be sure to only knead the dough until it is smooth and bounces back when you poke it.

Form dough into a smooth ball and place it into a greased bowl, turning once so that the top is greased. I sprayed a bowl with cooking spray as my grease.  Cover the dough and place in the refrigerator to let it rise overnight, or for about 8 hours.

I made this monkey bread late Friday evening and was SO eager to wake up on Saturday morning to get started on the next step.  The dough takes only about 15-20 minutes to make the night before. Then, forget about it until the morning.

You’re going to wake up to a very cold and puffy ball of dough. It will double in size. Mine was extra puffy because I used Red Star Platinum  yeast. Here comes a fun step: punch the dough down and watch it slightly deflate.  Don’t punch it too hard, just a gentle punch to redistribute the air pockets inside and make the dough easier to divide into portions for the dough balls.

 This part is also fun: melt 1 stick of butter in a small bowl.  Set aside. Mix together 1 cup of sugar and 1 hefty Tablespoon of cinnamon in a shallow bowl. That’s a lot of cinnamon, yes. I am no stranger to cinnamon; I completely LOVE the stuff. I probably ended up using 1.5 Tablespoons total. Go by your taste preference.

Tear off small pieces of dough and roll into a ball.  One by one, dip the dough balls into the melted butter and then generously roll them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. I heavily coated the dough balls because I wanted a ton of cinnamon/sugar in each bite.

Aim for about 40-45 balls of dough.  The dough balls are not enormous – about 1.25 inches in diameter.  You need to make sure you have enough to fill the bundt pan, so be modest with their size.  Begin to layer them into the pan with some chopped pecans. The pecans are optional but I love the extra texture they bring! Caramel and pecans are an unbelievable duo for a sweet bread/roll.

Rolling each ball of dough took me about 20 minutes. Not so bad!

 At first you’ll wonder: how will 40 balls of dough fill this huge bundt pan?  Don’t worry! The dough balls rise A LOT in the oven as they bake. It may not look like enough at first, but wait until the monkey bread is finished.

Now it’s time for some caramel.  The caramel is beyond easy to make.  It’s the same homemade caramel sauce I used for my Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls. Melt butter over low heat, add dark brown sugar and heavy cream. Stir. Then allow it to boil for 3-4 minutes. That’s it!

You’re going to use this homemade caramel sauce twice in the recipe. First, you’ll pour half of it over the balls of dough before putting the bread into the oven.  Then, you’ll pour more on top of the monkey bread before serving. A double dose of caramel: I like it. 

Sprinkle some more pecans on top of the caramel and throw the monkey bread into the oven at 350F degrees for 30-35 minutes.  The top will brown a bit, but that’s ok. If it begins to brown too much too soon, cover it loosely with foil.

While it’s baking, the sticky caramel seeps in between all of the dough balls and pecans, allowing everything to stick together.  The dough balls will expand quite a bit as well – you’ll be alarmed by how puffy they get!  That’s what makes this monkey bread so fluffy and soft.

And it smells like homemade cinnamon rolls baking. That’s essentially what it this monkey bread is anyway.

Once the monkey bread is finished in the oven, allow it to cool for about 5-10 minutes.  Then, invert it onto a large serving plate and cover with the rest of the caramel sauce (you’ll have to heat the caramel for about 30 seconds in the microwave). Watch as the extra caramel topping drizzles down the sides and in between all of the cracks and crevices.

This monkey bread is out of this world!

You may either cut this bread into large uneven slices or let everyone pick off the gooey pieces themselves – you know, like monkeys. That’s what we did.

Before you know it, the entire thing will be gone. Ooey gooey success!

Eat it warm for breakfast, snack on it all day, have more for dessert, and then again at midnight.  Monkey bread is acceptable any time of day, ok? Share it with friends, family, and sweethearts.

Pretty much anyone with working tastebuds will LOVE this stuff.

This is a classic homemade monkey bread recipe and for my first version, classic is exactly what I wanted.

How can you resist a pile of gooey caramel, cinnamony monkey bread? Enjoy!

Related recipes:

I covered my Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls with the same caramel sauce from today.

They are out of this world!

Another decadent breakfast item to add to your weekend breakfast planning must be my Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake.  We enjoy this cake each Christmas morning. It’s so easy to make!

The buttery taste and plethora of cinnamon in today’s monkey bread recipe reminded me of my buttery Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake.

The cinnamon, sugar, and caramel cover and coat the pecans in this recipe, just like my Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Candied Nuts. I LOVE these candied nuts and have been eating them for years. The secret is to coat them heavily with whipped egg whites and then the sugar coating.

The little monkey bread dough balls reminded me of my Mini Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Muffins.  I could eat pumpkin any time of the year! And I do.

Another easy yeasted dough recipe is my Chocolate Chip Cherry Sweet Rolls.  Not much work time with these, but there is some waiting time as the yeast rises.  We LOVE these so much.

Last one, I promise!

Have you tried my Caramel Swirl Chocolate Chip Banana Bread yet? Because you must.

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Tagged as: bread, brown sugar, cakes, caramel, cinnamon, cream, eggs, milk, monkey bread, pecans, white sugar, yeast