Homemade monkey bread combines several tiny balls of dough coated in butter, cinnamon, and sugar. It’s basically a giant Bundt pan of gooey cinnamon rolls! Finish this fun breakfast or dessert treat with vanilla icing and serve pull apart style.
This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
Have you ever had monkey bread before? You either (1) have eaten it and love it (2) have no idea what I’m talking about. If you fall into the latter category, let me explain what this outrageous recipe is.
What is Monkey Bread?
Monkey bread is a sweet, gooey Bundt cake made from balls of dough rolled in cinnamon sugar. Arrange the dough balls in a Bundt pan, then top it all with a buttery brown sugar sauce before baking. Invert it onto a serving plate, then drizzle with creamy vanilla icing. Each bite tastes like the sticky delicious center of cinnamon rolls. Monkey bread is served pull apart style, similar to my cinnamon roll wreath, where everyone tears off a piece– just like how monkeys pick at their food.
You can have monkey bread for breakfast, brunch, or dessert. Or dinner, or 2nd dessert, or lunch, or snack. (Hey, I’m not judging! Every time is a good monkey bread time!)
I published a caramel monkey bread recipe several years ago and followed up with this traditional recipe. I decided it was time to update the photos, add a video tutorial, and include more helpful information so you can have monkey bread recipe success!
Video Tutorial: Monkey Bread Recipe
Here’s a video tutorial displaying each step. Use this as your guide.
4 Parts to Monkey Bread
There are 4 parts to this monkey bread. It sounds like a lot, but most of the ingredients are repeated in each. One thing to note is that you pour the brown sugar sauce over the dough balls before baking. It’s the secret to monkey bread’s gooey sticky texture!
- Homemade Dough: milk, sugar, yeast, eggs, butter, salt, flour
- Dough Ball Coating: butter, cinnamon, sugar
- Brown Sugar Sauce: butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract
- Vanilla Icing: confections’ sugar, milk, vanilla extract
Homemade Monkey Bread Dough
Before we walk through each individual step in this monkey bread recipe, let’s talk about the dough. This is the best monkey bread I’ve ever had because it starts with a rich homemade dough. Nothing compares to the flavor of homemade and you’ll be surprised how quickly the dough comes together. You can even get started on the dough the night before!
This is a rich dough, which means that it’s prepared with fat like milk, butter, and eggs. Rich doughs make soft breads such as Nutella babka, dinner rolls, and glazed doughnuts. Lean doughs, on the other hand, are made without much fat and produce crusty bread such as focaccia, homemade bagels, and pizza dough.
You need 7 ingredients for monkey bread dough:
- Milk: Liquid activates the yeast. Nondairy or low fat milks are fine, but whole milk produces phenomenal flavor and texture.
- Yeast: You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast. I recommend Platinum Yeast from Red Star, which is an instant yeast blended with natural dough improvers. Review my Baking with Yeast Guide before getting started if you need a little refresher on working with yeasted dough.
- Sugar: Sugar feeds the yeast, increases its activity, and tenderizes the dough.
- Eggs: Eggs provide structure and flavor.
- Butter: Butter promises a flavorful dough.
- Salt: You can’t make flavorful bread without salt!
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the structure of the dough.
Overview: How to Make Monkey Bread
- Prepare the dough: The dough comes together with a mixer. You can also make the dough by hand, but it requires a bit of arm muscle. After the dough comes together in the mixing bowl, it’s time to knead. You can simply continue beating the dough with the mixer for this step or you can knead the dough by hand.
- Let the dough rise: The dough rises in about 1-2 hours in a relatively warm environment.
- Punch down the dough: Punch down the dough to release the air.
- Shape & coat dough balls: Pull off little pieces of dough and roll into balls. Dunk the balls into melted butter, then coat with cinnamon sugar. Little bakers love to help out with this step! Good thing to note: the heavier the cinnamon-sugar coating, the more these little monkey bread bites will taste like gooey cinnamon rolls.
- Let the shaped monkey bread rest for 20 minutes: Arrange the coated balls in a Bundt pan or tube pan, cover lightly, then set aside to rest as you preheat the oven. The balls will slightly rise during this time.
- Top with buttery brown sugar sauce: Before baking the monkey bread, mix melted butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract together. Pour this sauce all over the dough balls.
- Bake: Bake until the top is lightly browned, about 40 minutes.
- Invert onto serving plate: Allow the monkey bread to cool for 5-10 minutes, then invert it onto a serving plate.
- Drizzle with vanilla icing: Whisk confectioners’ sugar, milk, and vanilla extract together until smooth. Drizzle all over the warm monkey bread.
Imagine the best cinnamon roll you’ve ever tasted. This monkey bread is even better because it’s stickier, softer, sweeter, and piled extra high. You’ll be licking your fingers clean and grabbing more and more bites. Though from-scratch monkey bread takes longer to prepare than a shortcut version made with canned biscuit dough, the results are incomparable. Once you smell the gooey cinnamon sugar bubbling in the oven, you’ll know you made the right decision.
More Indulgent Breakfast Recipes
- Star Bread
- Biscuit Breakfast Casserole
- Raspberry Twist Bread
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Giant Cinnamon Roll Cake
- Berry Fritters
Homemade Monkey Bread
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 servings
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Monkey bread combines several tiny balls of dough coated in butter, cinnamon, and sugar. It’s basically a giant Bundt pan of gooey cinnamon rolls! Finish this fun breakfast or dessert treat with vanilla icing and serve pull apart style.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) whole milk, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons Platinum Yeast from Red Star (1 standard packet)
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup (5 Tbsp; 70g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 cups (625g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
Coating
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, divided
- 1 and 1/4 cups (250g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2/3 cup (130g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Vanilla Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm milk, yeast, and sugar together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or paddle attachment. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs, butter, salt, and 1 cup flour. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then add the remaining flour. Beat on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. *If you do not own a mixer, you can mix this dough with a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle!*
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 2 minutes or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 2 minutes.
- 1st Rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise in a relatively warm environment for 1-2 hours or until double in size. (I always let it rise on the counter. Takes about 2 hours. For a tiny reduction in rise time, see my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
- Generously grease a 10-12 cup Bundt pan with butter or nonstick spray. (Nonstick spray is best for this recipe.)
- Prepare the coating: Melt 1/2 cup (115g;1 stick) of unsalted butter in a medium bowl. Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon together in another medium bowl. You will use the rest of the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla later.
- Shape the dough: Use the video tutorial above as a guide for this step. When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Working one at a time, take small pieces of dough and roll into balls (about 1.25 inches in diameter each). You will need 40-45 balls total, so be modest with their size. Dip each ball, one by one, in the melted butter and then generously roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat them. You may need more cinnamon-sugar depending how heavy you coat each ball. Arrange the balls in the Bundt pan as you go. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel and allow the shaped monkey bread to rest for 20 minutes. The balls will slightly rise during this time.
- Adjust oven rack to a lower position and preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). (It’s best to bake the monkey bread towards the bottom of the oven so the top doesn’t burn.)
- Finish the coating: Melt remaining 1/4 cup (60g; 4 Tbsp) butter, then whisk in the brown sugar and vanilla extract. Pour evenly all over the shaped monkey bread.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown on top. Cover loosely with foil if the top is browning too quickly. Cool for 5-10 minutes, then invert onto a large serving plate or cake stand.
- Make the icing: Whisk all of the icing ingredients together. Drizzle over monkey bread. Cut the bread into generous slices or let everyone pick off the gooey pieces themselves. That’s the fun of this treat!
- Monkey bread tastes best served on the same day. Cover leftovers tightly and store at room temperature for 1 day and in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Prepare recipe through step 4. After dough rises, punch it down to release the air, then roll into 40-45 small balls as directed in step 7. Do not coat the balls. Place shaped dough balls on a baking sheet, then refrigerate for 30 minutes. Once cold, the dough balls won’t stick together anymore. Place them in a freezer bag or freezer-friendly container, then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw dough balls in the refrigerator or at room temperature, prepare the coating and Bundt pan, then coat the dough balls as instructed in step 7. Continue with the recipe.
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare the recipe through step 3. Cover the dough tightly and refrigerate for up to about 15 hours. At least 3 hours before you serve the monkey bread the next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator, keep covered, and allow to rise on the counter for about 1-2 hours. Continue with step 5.
- Yeast: Red Star Platinum yeast is an instant yeast. You can use Red Star Yeast active dry yeast instead. Rise times will be slightly longer using active dry yeast. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
Keywords: cinnamon rolls, breakfast
This post is sponsored by Red Star Yeast.
Question: seems odd to have the dough rise in the fridge and then rise some more outside for 1-2 hrs. Was this a mostake? Usually when dough rises in the fridge it is left out to come to room temp around 30mins. My concern is overproving.
Hi Sally and team members!
I love all your recipes, and have increased my baking quite a bit because of you! I have a 2 part question that you already answered one part in January 2022. One was “ can you use buttermilk in here instead of milk”, and you answered yes.
The second question I had was that somewhere I saw that you said that buttermilk can be always exchanged with milk. Is that for everything, or only sweet foods, or is there anything that you could think of that wouldn’t be a good choice? I’ve been recipe hunting for ones with buttermilk to use up the leftover buttermilk I have from making a recipe or recipes. It only comes in half gallon size here. I’ve made your oatmeal raisin cookies, (a very big hit, that might be today’s project), blueberry muffin recipes in different formats, since I also have a lot of blueberries right now. I’ve also made your biscuits, which I’ve never made from scratch, and was so proud of how they turned out! Great for strawberry shortcake.
So, if I can exchange buttermilk for regular milk that would be great. Besides the fact I never have regular milk, we only drink almond milk here. Sometimes I substitute it, but that was before I discovered the joys of buttermilk. My other substitutes are Greek Yogurt for sour cream, ( no one has noticed the difference), applesauce for oil. I’ve even used Greek Yogurt as an exchange for buttermilk when it was only a couple tablespoons, and I didn’t have it.
Thank you, and I’m sorry this is so long.
Hi Patti! Thank you so much for asking and I’m glad to help. Buttermilk can usually be substituted for whole milk in recipes. However, it really does depend on the recipe. If the recipe is leavened by yeast or baking powder, you’re usually fine to make that swap. However, if the recipe uses baking soda, it could throw things off because buttermilk is quite acidic. However, it’s usually ok. You can’t really go the other way though… swapping in whole milk for buttermilk (because of that acidity). I hope this isn’t too confusing!
Can I use a tube pan like the kind you use for angel food cake?
Absolutely, as long as it can hold the same volume.
Just wondering what else this great dough can be used for?
It’s such a fine dough to work with….I would appreciate some other recipe for it!
The monkey bread is super!
It needs a larger bundt than 10-12 cup. I used a 12 cup, and it did overflow to my oven floor! I salvaged it in time…placed about 12 balls into a casserole dish, and baked together for the rest of the time (till browned)
Not to clean the oven!☹
★★★★★
I loved this recipe and even better, my hubby did. He said its my best effort yet! I have burnt my fingers because i couldn’t wait. I added pecan pieces between layers, they have become pralines. Awesome recipe, thank you.
★★★★★
Please send help!
I have tried this recipe x3 over the past two days (I am not one to admit defeat…) without success. The dough is just consistently super sticky and un-workable. I have tried letting it rise once to see if it was any better. I have also tried adding several teaspoons more flour without success. I cannot get it to the point wear I can knead it or even come close to making dough balls.
Full disclosure: I’m a bread nube… but I have made dozens of your recipes without any issue! I live in Hawaii so I suspect humidity is contributing. Should I have just kept adding flour or decrease the milk? Any help would be appreciated!
Hi Kenny, you’re probably not doing anything wrong–the humidity could indeed be the culprit. Try adding even more flour to get a soft, workable dough. Hope your next try is successful!
Can you use mini Bundt pans instead of one big pan? If so, would it change the baking time?
Hi Katie, we can’t see why not! We’re unsure of the exact bake time, but keep a close eye on it.
Fun to make this with “real’ dough instead of canned biscuits which I’ve used before. Wish I had read the comments about cooking on a baking sheet. Would have saved me from having a mess to clean in my oven.
★★★★★
I just made this recipe and it tastes amazing. It just came out of the oven and is almost half finished 🙂
One thing Im wondering is that smoke came out of my oven when I baked mine at around the 30 minute mark. Could it be from the burning sugar or something like that? Has anyone else had this problem? Now my house smells like smoke but I’m not sure what happened during the baking process to cause that. Overall great reicipe though.
★★★★★
Mine also overflowed. I don’t know what size my pan is… I just have one bundt cake pan. I am assuming my butter mixture wasn’t liquidy enough and didn’t pour in and that my pan may be too small.
Hi ! I loved the recipe , but I was wondering if I need to serve it at 11 am in the morning , can I bake it the night before and leave it covered at room temperature? Cuz I’m afraid I won’t have enough time to bake it same day in the morning .
Hi Gugu! Monkey bread really tastes best served the same day. We recommend following our overnight dough rising instructions detailed in the recipe notes!
Hello Sally,
Iv’e doing this recipe several times and it becomes delicious as usual! I have a question can I use oil instead of butter and if so what amount should I put?
Best to stick with butter for this recipe!
Hi,
This was AMAZING!!!!!!
I do have an unrelated question though…. do you happen to have any recipes that are scandinavian ? Finnish, etc??
Thank you
★★★★★
Hi Sally! Love your recipes! But this one and I were not friends – haha! It was the baking part, actually. I let it rise the second time for just ten minutes, and was shocked to open the door partway through baking to see that all the brown sugar-butter sauce had boiled over and was all over my oven bottom, and the dough balls had expanded so much that two had even fallen onto the oven floor as well. I followed the recipe exactly, otherwise. What can you suggest I change for next time? Thank you!
★★★★
Hi Sabrina! Did you use a 10-12 cup bundt pan? Anything smaller will lead to an overflowing pan. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
I see I’m not the only one this happened to! I used a 12 cup bundt pan, and the balls rose so much, that I had a big mess on the oven floor! I caught it almost in time, and took some dough out, put it in a casserole, baked both together for about 20 mins.
If I do make it again, I will not put all the balls in 1 pan….I will split them up….also, not adding the butter/brown sugar sauce. I don’t think you need it! Hubby liked the recipe without the sauce better than with… they are good!
I have a bread maker with a “dough” setting, that kneads for about 15-20 min and rises for 80-90 min. Do you think I could use it for Steps One and Two? Thank you!
Hi Holly! We haven’t tested this dough in a bread machine, but I know some readers have made this dough in one. Let us know if you give it a try!
This looks so delicious i would like to try it at home.
Thank you!
Definitely think what brown sugar you use matters. I used the organic brown sugar from costco and my sauce was not a sauce at all. More of a thick paste. Several issues with the recipe when I made. The only part that was perfect was the dough. Followed all instructions and always weigh my ingredients. I altered the icing as I dont like Sally’s vanilla icing. I added creamcheese. Still tasty. But thinking that’s because the dough is nice and soft. If the sauce was actually a sauce I think it would’ve been better as my bread isn’t gooey.
★★★
I made this today and it was delicious but it rose too much and spilled all over the oven. Do you have any idea what I might have done wrong. The taste was great but I just need it to not rise as much.
Hi June! Did you use a 10-12 cup bundt pan? Anything smaller will lead to an overflowing pan. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
How thick or thin is the brown sugar sauce supposed to be? Because mine seemed pretty thick. We had quite a bit of melted butter left over from the cinnamon sugar coating part, so we measured it out, added more to get the 60 grams (1/4 cup) we needed, and used that for the sauce. We also used dark brown sugar for extra flavor. For lack of a better description, it had an extremely thick, not very sauce-like consistency that didn’t seem pourable. We actually added extra butter to the still-warm mixture to thin it out, and even then it was still pretty thick. Is the butter-to-brown sugar ratio off here? Should I increase the amount of butter and/or reduce the amount of brown sugar next time? Does it matter if I use the leftover butter from the coating as part of the brown sugar mixture, or should I bite the bullet and use a whole new half-stick of butter? We melted the butter in a saucepan on the stove, then added everything else after removing it from the heat; does that affect anything? Does it make any real difference whether I use light or dark brown sugar? It says I could use either one, but I saw you using light brown sugar in the tutorial. If it does matter which one I use, that would be unfortunate, because I like using dark brown sugar since it’s richer and more flavorful.
Also, some of the sauce ended up overflowing in the oven, so we had to put a baking sheet underneath it, which I was very apprehensive about, since I thought both the baking sheet and opening and closing the oven during the baking time would negatively affect the bread’s baking process, as I had read in one of your cake baking tip blogs.
Hi C, I would love to help. And my apologies for the late reply– somehow we missed your question! The brown sugar sauce should definitely be pourable. See video above around the 2:52 mark. If yours became too thick, it was likely the butter solidifying again. You can briefly warm it back up to melt the butter again, about 10-15 seconds. You can use light or dark brown sugar, either would be fine and would not alter the consistency of the sauce. Overflow can happen– what is the volume your Bundt pan can hold? You may need a slightly larger one. Anyway, let me know if this advice helps if you try the recipe again!
Okay, thank you very much!
I honestly don’t know what size my Bundt pan is; I haven’t measured its volume yet. I’m going to assume it’s either a 10 or 12 cup pan.
Also, is there a way to make this in a cake pan, pie dish, or 9×13 inch rectangular pan?
Thanks again!
Would I be able to substitute the milk with buttermilk?
Yes, absolutely!
Do you think you could substitute the all purpose flour to make this gluten free?
Hi Cara, we haven’t tested this recipe with any gluten free alternatives, but let me know if you give any a try.
I’m in the middle of making this but I’m not sure why my dough is so sticky. Do you know why this could be?
Hi Jena, A lot of factors go into this such as mixing time, speed, weather, yeast, and temperature of water. A humid environment can make a big difference. Feel free to add more flour to make a soft, yet workable dough.
When I tried to flip it out, the balls all were separated. 40 “monkey bread meatballs” as my husband joked. They tasted nice, if a little light on cinnamon, but I didn’t know why they didn’t stick together. Any thoughts? There seemed to be plenty of brown sugar/butter mixture in there.
Hi Grace! How strange, did you make any changes to the recipe? Also make sure to cool the bread for 5-10 minutes before inverting. Hope the “monkey bread meatballs” were still delicious!
Can I just use regular skim milk instead of whom?
Hi Evalyn, That should be fine in a pinch, but the dough may not be as soft or rich.
If I’m making a day before, do I just make the dough and sit in the fridge after its first rise rising? Or straight to the fridge after moving?
Thank you,
Hi Ben, The first rise will happen in the fridge. See the recipe notes for details on the overnight method.
I have made the bread portion many times and delicious. So much better than greasy store bought biscuit dough. Curious as to why you chose AP flour?
★★★★★
Which flour would you have used? Bread flour perhaps? AP is readily available and makes for a softer dough than a higher gluten flour.
I don’t have a Bundt pan. Can I use a 8×8 pan or 9×13 pan? Thanks!
Hi Julia, We haven’t tested it but you could try placing a single layer of the dough balls in a 9×13 but you might have some leftover. You can also use a loaf pan- simply layer the dough balls in a 9×5 pan. You’ll have enough for two loaves. We are unsure of the exact bake time for either. Happy baking!
Suggestions on bake times if I make these in muffin tins?
Hi Melissa! We haven’t tested it so can’t say for sure. Let us know if you give it a try!
Yes, a muffin tray works great! I put 5 roughly 1″+ sized balls in each cup. They took about 20min. DEFINITELY put a baking tray under the muffin tin, the topping leaked off and all over my oven. I had extra dough, but would guess it made about 17 muffins?
★★★★★
So you think I can roll out my dough and cut tiny squares, put my regular filling in and roll them into the balls? So there’s gooey filling inside and not just outside? Or even roll out my dough just extra long but not so wide and make a bunch of mini cinnamon rolls to throw in the bundt pan?
Hi Roxanne! We haven’t tested either of those variations but let us know if you do. The recipe as written is already gooey and delicious. Happy baking!
Still giving this a 5 stars. Fantastic, delicious biscuit dough, yum yum yum.
One complaint is that it’s wayyyy to sweet with the icing. I make this without the icing and it’s perfect.
★★★★★
Another awesome recipe from Sally. This one takes some patience, but is fun to make with the kids, and is absolutely scrumptious. Followed the recipe exactly, and it came out perfectly. Thank you, Sally!
★★★★★
Hi Sally. Can I use the dough recipe to make it savory? I was thinking skip the sugar since I’m using instant yeast I’ve made this before but now I want to try a breakfast monkey bread. Thank you!
Definitely! This is a good “base” dough for any flavor monkey bread. You can reduce the sugar in the dough. We recommend 2 Tablespoons (halve the amount listed).
We love this recipe! But I have extra apples to use. Do you think I could add in chopped apples as I build the dough balls?
Hi Mary Pat, we haven’t tested this monkey bread with chopped apples, but some readers have tried it with great success. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
Hi,
Can I make this dough dairy free? If so, how?
Yes! Use margarine and egg substitute/replacer (like red milk) and flaxseed meal. I did if for Xmas and it turned out fabulous