Soft and buttery, coated in gooey caramelized cinnamon-sugar, this is indeed the best monkey bread recipe! Sweet, sticky, and utterly irresistible, this pull-apart cinnamon bread is super easy and fun to make!
Made with simple pantry ingredients and straightforward steps, monkey bread is as fuss-free as it gets. It really is a mosaic of tender, chewy, golden-brown dough dipped in melted butter with gooey cinnamon sugar clinging to the nooks and crannies! So yum! Whether you serve it fresh for brunch, as a Holiday centerpiece, or a fun weekend bake, this one is guaranteed to disappear fast!
If you love baking with cinnamon, you must try my easy no-knead cinnamon roll focaccia, cinnamon roll muffins, vegan baked cinnamon donuts, and sourdough banana cinnamon pancakes!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
✨ Soft, pillowy bites- Each piece of dough bakes up tender and fluffy, making it impossible to stop at one!
✨ Coated in buttery cinnamon sugar - Every bite is sweet, spiced, and perfectly caramelized as it bakes.
✨ Fun to pull-apart and share - It's such a fun bread to eat! Great as a centerpiece for gatherings or family treats.
✨ Simple to make - With an easy no-knead dough and straightforward steps, this cinnamon bread recipe is super approachable for even beginner bakers!
Recipe Ingredients
Flour: I used all-purpose flour here, but you can easily use bread flour for a chewier bread.
Yeast: Use active dry yeast or instant yeast, but make sure your yeast is fresh and has not expired. Stir in half a teaspoon of yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes. If the mixture gets bubbly and frothy, your yeast is good to go!
Milk: Regular cow's milk, or any plant-based milk, such as almond milk, oat milk, or soy milk, is great for this recipe.
Oil: For making the monkey bread rich and tender. I really enjoy using coconut oil in my baking as it adds a light, subtle sweet flavor. But feel free to use olive oil, sunflower, or canola oil instead.
Sugar: We use regular granulated sugar in the dough and brown sugar for the cinnamon-sugar coating. You can use white sugar for the latter as well.
Cinnamon powder: For that sweet, mildly spiced warmth and irresistible aroma! I prefer Ceylon cinnamon for its delicate, sweet aroma and flavor.
Please see the recipe card below for full information about the ingredients and quantities.
How To Make Monkey Bread
A typical recipe for monkey bread calls for kneading, but I was in no mood for some extra effort. So, I pulled out my recipe card for vegan cinnamon rolls, and, to my surprise, I got the best monkey bread ever.
Step 1: Melt the sugar in the milk, oil, and sugar over medium heat. Right before it comes to a boil, take it off.
Step 2: Allow it to cool to just lukewarm before blending in the yeast.
Step 3: After about 5 to 10 minutes, when the mixture is bubbly, stir in the all-purpose flour.
Step 4: Cover your bowl with a kitchen towel and place the mixture in a draft-free area till it doubles in size.
Step 5: Stir in the remaining flour, baking soda, baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
Step 6: Place the dough in the refrigerator to chill. I like to keep it overnight because it divides my workload. I make the dough for the pull-apart bread a day before and bake it the next. Also, the dough gets easier to handle. You can refrigerate it for up to 2 days.
Step 7: Turn over the dough on a lightly floured surface and pat it into a rough rectangle shape.
Step 8: Cut the dough into 50 even pieces by dividing it lengthwise first and then breadthwise with a knife or pizza cutter.
Step 9: Roll each piece into a ball, dip it in melted butter, and then toss it in a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon.
Step 10: Place each dough ball into a greased Bundt pan, stacking them over each other to form random, rustic layers.
Step 11: Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside until puffy.
Final step: Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Let it cool for 5 minutes and then gently take it out on your serving platter.
Pro Tips
- You can make this monkey bread vegan by subbing plant-based milk and butter in the recipe.
- Yeast loves warm liquid! The ideal temperature for yeast to do its job is 40 °C/ 105°F. Basically, not too hot, not too cold, just warm!
- If you’re looking for a quick baking project, use store-bought biscuit dough if you like. It will work well here.
- In case you have the cinnamon-sugar mixture left over, use it to top your French toast or fluffy cinnamon pancakes!
How To Serve
As the monkey bread bakes, the butter and cinnamon-sugar concoction caramelizes. So, it comes out super-soft, gooey, and simply divine.
This cinnamon pull-apart bread is best served warm. It really needs no accompaniment, but, if you must, a scoop of vanilla ice cream is always so good with this!
Store the leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave, air-fryer, or oven.
Recipe FAQs
Monkey bread, also called "cinnamon pull-apart bread", is a pastry made with dough balls, dunked in butter, rolled in brown sugar, and arranged in layers in a Bundt pan. This is then baked to golden perfection. It's gooey, sticky, and so delicious, and so fun to just tear apart with your hands and eat!
Culinary historians have many theories. Some say it’s because you can eat it with your fingers as a monkey would. Others say they’re a variation of Parker House rolls. When you bake the rolls side-by-side in a Bundt pan, they look like a monkey puzzle tree.
And a few say that the actress ZaSu Pitts named it monkey bread. I find each of these speculations fascinating, but none of them is definitive. So, I agree with most that it’s similar to bubble bread and that it became popular after First Lady Nancy Regan served it at the White House.
Most bakers choose a Bundt pan for the monkey bread recipe because it gives an alluring shape to the pull-apart loaf, and the gap in the center helps evenly distribute the dough. That said, I’ve seen the bread being baked in all sorts of things: cake pans, loaf pans, etc. Pick whatever is convenient for you.
📖 Recipe
The Best Monkey Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Milk You can use any milk of your choice.
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 1/4 cup Coconut oil You can use any vegetable oil of your choice.
- 1.5 tsp Dried active yeast
- 2 cups All-purpose flour You can use whole-wheat flour.
- 1/4 tsp Baking soda
- 1/4 tsp Baking powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/4 cup All-purpose flour You can use whole-wheat flour.
Cinnamon Coating
- 3/4 cup Brown sugar You can also use white sugar or a combination of brown and white sugar.
- 2 tsp Cinnamon powder
- 1/3 cup Butter, melted You can use coconut oil or any plant-based butter, to make this vegan.
Instructions
- Heat milk, oil, and sugar in a small saucepan. Don't let it come to a boil. Take off the heat and cool.1 cup Milk, 1/4 cup Sugar, 1/4 cup Coconut oil
- When this mixture is just warm, sprinkle over the yeast. Set aside for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is bubbly.1.5 tsp Dried active yeast
- Whisk in the 2 cups of flour. Cover and place in a draft-free place for 1 hour or until the dough doubles in size.2 cups All-purpose flour
- Now add in the extra 1/4 cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.1/4 cup All-purpose flour, 1/4 tsp Baking soda, 1/4 tsp Baking powder, 1/4 tsp Salt
- Mix well. The dough is now ready for use immediately. You can refrigerate it for 30 minutes or up to 2 days. I like to keep it refrigerated overnight.
- Grease a 9" bundt pan very well with butter. Preheat your oven to 180 C/ 350 F.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and gently pat it onto a rectangle.
- Use a sharp knife to cut it into small pieces. I got 50 pieces from this dough.
- Roll each dough bit into a ball.
- Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon powder in a small bowl.3/4 cup Brown sugar, 2 tsp Cinnamon powder
- Dip each into melted butter, then roll into the sugar-cinnamon mixture.1/3 cup Butter, melted
- Place in the prepared bundt pan, making layers of the dough balls.
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel, and place in a draft-free place for 1-1.5 hours or until the dough is puffy.
- Bake the bread at 180 C / 350 F, for 25-30 minutes until the top is deep brown in color and the caramel is bubbling around the edges.
- Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes before gently turning it out on a serving platter.
- Serve warm and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- You can make this monkey bread vegan by subbing plant-based milk and butter in the recipe.
- Yeast loves warm liquid! The ideal temperature for yeast to do its job is 40 °C/ 105°F. Basically, not too hot, not too cold, just warm!
- If you’re looking for a quick baking project, use store-bought biscuit dough if you like. It will work well here.
- In case you have the cinnamon-sugar mixture left over, use it to top your French toast or fluffy cinnamon pancakes!
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