Monkey bread is a sweet, sticky, and gooey dessert baked with sugar, cinnamon, and butter. You can use a bundt pan or any oven-safe baking dish. Monkey bread is usually served warm, straight out of the oven. It's easy to reheat in the oven or microwave.
Course Bread, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword best monkey bread, homemade monkey bread, monkey bread, monkey bread from scratch, monkey bread ingredients, monkey bread recipe, recipe for monkey bread
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour10 minutesminutes
Resting time 20 minutesminutes
Servings 10
Ingredients
The dough
1 ½cupswhole milkwarmed to 112 degrees Fahrenheit
1package Red Star Active Dry Yeast.25 ounce
¼cupwhite sugar
2large eggsroom temperature
⅓cupbuttermelted and cooled slightly
1teaspoonsea salt
5cupsbread flour or all-purpose flour
¼teaspoonvegetable oil or avocado oil to coat bowl
½cupbutter
1 ¼cupswhite sugar
1tablespoonground cinnamon
The filling
¼cupmelted butter
⅔cuplight or dark brown sugarpacked
1teaspoonpure vanilla extract
¼teaspoonvegetable or avocado oilbutter, or non-stick spray to coat pan
The icing on top
1cupconfectioners sugar
3tablespoonswhole milk
½teaspoonpure vanilla extract
Instructions
Making the dough
In a large bowl, whisk together the warmed milk, yeast, and sugar. Cover and let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast becomes frothy.
Mix in the eggs, melted butter, salt, and 1 cup of flour. Mix well. Add the rest of the flour. Mix until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl and a ball forms.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board. Knead for about 5 minutes or until the dough is elastic and smooth. When you make an indention in the dough’s surface with your finger it should spring back.
Lightly grease a large bowl using vegetable oil. Place dough in the bowl, then turn it so that all sides are coated. Cover, and place it in a warm area to let it rise for 1-2 hours or until the dough doubles in size.
Generously grease the Bundt pan with tasteless nonstick spray, butter, or vegetable oil. It needs to be well-greased.
Melt ½ cup of butter in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon.
When the dough is finished rising, punch it down and return it to the floured board. Pinch off small pieces of dough and roll them into balls. You will need to make about 45 balls so keep them on the small side.
Dip each ball in ½ cup of the melted butter then roll in the sugar-cinnamon so it's coated well. If you need more cinnamon and sugar, add it.
Arrange the balls in the Bundt pan as you coat them. Once you’ve arranged them all, cover the pan with a towel, and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. The dough will rise slightly.
As the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 350ºF and move the oven rack to the middle-to-low position.
Making the filling
Melt ¼ cup of butter, and whisk in ⅔ cup brown sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Pour this mixture over the monkey bread in the pan so that the entire surface is evenly coated.
Put in the oven, and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. About halfway through, turn on the oven light and look inside. If you find that the top is browning too fast, cover it with foil.
Remove from oven when done, and let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Once cool, remove it from the pan by inverting it onto a serving platter. Top with glaze.
Making the icing glaze
Combine 1 cup confectioners sugar, 3 tablespoons whole milk, and ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract.
You can use it to ice the monkey bread or use it for dipping. To ice it, gently drizzle the icing on top, moving quickly so the top is covered evenly.
Notes
Use bread flour, all-purpose flour, or 1:1 gluten free flour; don't use self-rising flour.
You can top with pecans for a crunchy add-on if you wish.
Melt the butter separately each time so it remains warm (the second and third times you need it).
You can use any oven-safe pan; grease the sides well with butter or tasteless oil.