Best Monkey Bread

If you’re a fan of sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, and other sweet breakfast pastries, let us introduce you to your new favorite—monkey bread. This cinnamon-sugar pull-apart bread is as fun to make as it is to eat, and makes for a spectacular centerpiece whether you’re serving it for a holiday morning brunch or are bringing it to a breakfast potluck (we’d serve it for dessert without hesitation too). It isn’t fussy to make, is easy to get creative with, and serves a crowd with ease… quit monkeying around and make this already!

What People Are Saying:
"Omg YUM! It’s like a giant cinnamon roll… I love how easily it falls apart too. So yummy!" - joc2992

How To Make Monkey Bread

INGREDIENTS

• Active Dry Yeast: Yeast is alive, and produces gasses that cause dough to rise. Because of this there are a couple of precautions to take to ensure the yeast is activated. First, make sure the yeast isn’t expired. While this may seem obvious, dead yeast simply cannot be revived. Then, make sure the milk is not too hot. It needs to be warm, but too hot and it will kill the yeast. A good rule of thumb is that you should be about to dip a finger into the milk without it burning.
• Whole Milk: This is going to add some fat to the bread that will help bind the dough together and add flavor to the finished dish. While yeast can be activated in water, milk works better here as both a binder and for flavor. A good monkey bread is warm and savory. What pairs better than milk?
• All-Purpose Flour: We don’t need to use bread flour or anything fancy here. Classic all-purpose flour will yield a soft, gooey dough that almost melts in your mouth when cooked in the butter and cinnamon-sugar mixture.
• Light Brown Sugar: This will add a nice warm touch of molasses flavor to the monkey bread that will make it even more sweet and comforting.
• Eggs: As with many baked goods, eggs are integral to achieving a successful dough. They add moisture, structure, and flavor to the dough, and otherwise it would turn out a flat puck rather than fluffy pull-apart balls.
• Granulated Sugar & Ground Cinnamon: This is the classic cinnamon-sugar combo. It is sweet and slightly spicy with all the flavor and aroma of cinnamon, and combined with the melted butter creates the oh-so-gooey texture that makes monkey bread monkey bread.
• Confectioners’ Sugar & Heavy Cream: Confectioners’ sugar is light and airy, so whips up into a smooth icing without any trouble.
• Vanilla Extract: Sweet and floral, vanilla extract will add more depth of flavor to the bread while also providing a touch more moisture.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

To start the monkey bread off, you’ll need to bloom the yeast. Warm milk in a large measuring glass—you don’t want the milk to be too hot, just warm will do—and then sprinkle the dry yeast on top. Allow the mixture to sit for about 5 minutes until it becomes foamy, this is how you know the yeast is activated.

Then, in a large bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the flour, brown sugar, and salt until they are mixed thoroughly. Then add in the milk and yeast mixture and the eggs. Beat this mixture with the dough hook until a dough starts to come together. Then add in the butter one tablespoon at a time. It is important to let each tab of butter incorporate fully into the dough before adding the next, to ensure a nice even distribution. Beat the dough for another 5 minutes until it becomes soft and smooth. The dough should be a little bit sticky, but not too bad.

Then transfer the dough into a greased bowl and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. Set this aside to rise for about an hour and a half until it is roughly doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen, grease a large Bundt pan with softened butter, being sure to coat all sides and the center evenly. Then prepare a clean surface with flour and turn out the dough, patting it into a square of even thickness, roughly ½” thick. Using a dough cutter, cut the square into 60 individual pieces and roll each pieces into a ball.

In a small bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar. Then in a separate small bowl, melt butter in the microwave at 15-second bursts.

Then take turns dipping each dough ball into the butter, then coating them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place each coated ball into the prepared Bundt pan, layering as you do so. Once each ball is coated and layered in the pan, cover it with the same kitchen towel and again allow the dough to rise—another 30 to 45 minutes.

As the dough rises, preheat the oven to 350°. Then remove the towel and place the Bundt pan into the hot oven. Bake the monkey bread for about 40 minutes, until gooey and darkened, the remove from the pan from the heat and invert onto a platter. Allow the bred to cool for 10 minutes before removing the pan.

As the bread cools, mix confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla until smooth and spoon it over the baked monkey bread. Viola!

The full list of ingredients and instructions can be found in the recipe below.

What Is Monkey Bread?

“Monkey bread” as a term has been around since the turn of the 20th century, and originally referred to a shortcut to buttered rolls that could be shared with a crowd. Around the same time, a similar Hungarian recipe called Aranygaluska was brought to American attention by Betty Crocker under the name “Hungarian Coffee Cake.” Somehow the two became synonymous, and the sweet, joyful monkey bread we know and love today was born.

Why Is It Called Monkey Bread?

There’s really no definitive answer here. The most common explanations are that once baked, this bread resembles a “barrel of monkeys” and is then eaten picking it apart with your fingers, like a monkey would, but we may never know the complete truth. To be honest, we’re not sure we care—one bite of this sticky cinnamon bread, and you won’t be worried about the name either.

Recipe Tips

• Don’t skimp on the glaze. To make monkey bread, you’ll generously coat pieces of dough in melted butter and cinnamon sugar, pile them up in a Bundt pan (the hole in the center guarantees everything evenly cooks), then bake. The glaze isn't completely necessary, but who are we kidding? You know you want it.
• Don’t rush it. This recipe takes some extra time since you're making your own yeasted dough (instead of using canned biscuits), but we promise you it's well worth the effort! Making your own dough results in the softest, fluffiest version of monkey bread that’ll be nearly impossible to stop eating.

Storage

Your leftover monkey bread, should you actually have any, will keep for 2 to 3 days at room temperature when stored in an air-tight container. While you can put it in the fridge, it will dry out quicker.