Monkey Bread
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Buttery, sticky, sweet and sinfully delicious, you’re going to love this pull-apart Monkey Bread! Made with a handful of kitchen staple ingredients, this easy, delicious and fun bread is perfect for holiday mornings or a yummy treat for anytime of the year!
Monkey Bread
This delicious sweet breakfast goes by many names: bubble loaf, sticky bread, coffee cake, monkey brains, but today we are going with the most common, Monkey Bread! This is an easy, delicious and super fun recipe. Using refrigerated biscuits, along with a handful of other ingredients you will most likely already have at home, we can create a unique, delightful, sweet and sticky dessert that is made to be messy!
What makes this breakfast treat simple to make is the use of refrigerated biscuits instead of making dough from scratch! This really does take all the guesswork out for you. The final result, whether breakfast or dessert, is buttery, sweet, sticky and the perfect shareable snack.
Ingredient Notes
- Refrigerated Biscuits – I used 3 cans total (10 in each can) of Pillsbury Country Biscuits.
- Sugar – We will be using both granulated and brown sugar!
- Cinnamon – Ground cinnamon.
- Butter – I used unsalted butter, but salted butter works too. Since there is a lot of butter in this recipe, you won’t need to grease your pan!
How To Make Monkey Bread
- Preheat Oven: Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Prep the Biscuits: Cut each biscuit into quarters. In a large ziploc bag, add the granulated sugar, cinnamon and mix well. Add the biscuit pieces to the bag. I added them all together but if you’re afraid they are going to stick add a few at a time. Close the ziploc bag and shake until each piece is fully coated in the cinnamon sugar. Add the biscuit pieces to a 12 cup bundt pan.
- Make Glaze: In a saucepan melt the butter and add the brown sugar to it. Once the butter is melted and the sugar fully dissolved, pour it over the biscuit pieces in the bundt pan.
- Bake: Transfer the bundt pan to the preheated oven and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the top is dark brown.
- Cool and Serve: Let the monkey bread cool in the bundt pan for 5 minutes before flipping it onto a serving dish. Let it cool for another 5 minutes before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Monkey Bread?
This sticky, soft, pull apart treat consists of a hodgepodge of biscuits pieces all baked together either with a glaze or batter. Monkey bread also goes by many names, monkey brains, bubble bread, or pull apart bread. But no matter the name, one thing is for sure. It’s a sinfully delicious sweet bread that everyone will love and enjoy eating.
Can I Make My Own Biscuit Dough For This Recipe?
I always say that fresh is best! I made this recipe the easiest possible, but I do have a perfect recipe right here on the blog for biscuits! You can drop the dough in raw and bake just as instructed in the recipe above.
How To Serve
Now if you wonder why this may be called monkey brains or monkey bread, the only explanation I’ve got is that the actual act of people pulling at this bread is similar to monkey behavior! Not that this is bad in any way, that is the intent on how to eat this. It’s fun to pull at this bread and enjoy the sticky and sweet combination. It’ll make you feel like a kid again! Trust me.
Expert Tips
- You can add all of the biscuit pieces together in one bag, but if you’re afraid they are going to stick, add a few at a time. I added them all and it turned out just fine!
- Make sure to shake the bag until each biscuit piece is fully coated in the cinnamon sugar.
- Don’t worry about buttering the bundt pan, there is plenty of butter in the recipe so it’s not needed!
- Place the bundt pan on a baking sheet before placing it in the oven, just in case there’s any caramel spilling over the edges.
- If you want to make your bread even MORE of a sinful treat, Some drizzled chocolate sauce would go beautifully over top, Nutella, maybe a sprinkle of powdered sugar, some shaved chocolate, vanilla icing, and a dollop of whipped cream.
Storing
Don’t store the monkey bread in the fridge, it does far better and stays more moist right on the counter! It will keep covered for 3 – 4 days.
Freezing
You can store your monkey bread in an airtight container for up to 3 months in the freezer!
More Yummy Recipes To Try
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Monkey Bread
Ingredients
- 3 tubes refrigerated biscuits (10 in each tube)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup butter (salted or unsalted)
- ½ cup brown sugar
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Prep the Biscuits: Cut each biscuit into quarters. In a large ziploc bag, add the granulated sugar, cinnamon and mix well. Add the biscuit pieces to the bag. I added them all together but if you're afraid they are going to stick add a few at a time. Close the ziploc bag and shake until each piece is fully coated in the cinnamon sugar. Add the biscuit pieces to a 12 cup bundt pan.
- Make Glaze: In a saucepan melt the butter and add the brown sugar to it. Once the butter is melted and the sugar fully dissolved, pour it over the biscuit pieces in the bundt pan.
- Bake: Transfer the bundt pan to the preheated oven and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the top is dark brown.
- Cool and Serve: Let the monkey bread cool in the bundt pan for 5 minutes before flipping it onto a serving dish. Let it cool for another 5 minutes before serving.
Equipment
Notes
- You can add all of the biscuit pieces together in one bag, but if you’re afraid they are going to stick, add a few at a time. I added them all and it turned out just fine!
- Make sure to shake the bag until each biscuit piece is fully coated in the cinnamon sugar.
- Don’t worry about buttering the bundt pan, there is plenty of butter in the recipe so it’s not needed!
- Place the bundt pan on a baking sheet before placing it in the oven, just in case there’s any caramel spilling over the edges.
- If you want to make your bread even MORE of a sinful treat, Some drizzled chocolate sauce would go beautifully over top, Nutella, maybe a sprinkle of powdered sugar, some shaved chocolate, vanilla icing, and a dollop of whipped cream.
- Don’t store the monkey bread in the fridge, it does far better and stays more moist right on the counter! It will keep covered for 3 – 4 days.
- You can store your monkey bread in an airtight container for up to 3 months in the freezer!
- Originally published March 2012.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
If you froze this, would you reheat in oven?
Hi,
You can reheat monkey bread by placing it on a pan and heating it in a 250°F oven for about 5 minutes. Or you can microwave individual servings in 30-second intervals until heated through. Frozen monkey bread should be thawed in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Hi! Made this again and again whenever guests come to visit us and as usual they all like it. Once again, thanks for posting this recipe. GOD BLESS!
Lol, you must really like it. You’re making me crave some now. 🙂
I’ll use your blueberry chocolate roll dough since pillsbury biscuit dough is difficult to find here in Saudi Arabia. It looks so yummy that I can’t wait to try it today. I’ll keep in touch and thanks for posting this recipe. Oooh, by the way, I forget to say “Hi!”. Sorry for that, I guess this is the result of too much excitement, I tend to forget about manners. Thanks again for this recipe
Lol, hi and you’re very welcome. 🙂
Yummy, yummy,yummy! Made three batches, mind you, three not one, and still the boys are asking for more, the children invited their friends today, and were all gone in a matter of minutes. I’m happy because they loved it but I’m also sad because I didn’t even have the chance to taste it. I’ll make it again tomorrow, that’s for sure. Thank you so much for posting this recipe and GODSPEED!!!OOOPSSS, forget to say “Hi” again!
Lol, that’s too bad you didn’t get to taste them, make sure you do if you make them again, you’ll love them. 🙂 Sounds like you’re having lots of fun. 🙂
Thank you so much for posting this recipe!!! I grew up with my mother making this and it being a special treat for our family. We NEVER had any left over, as we always finished off the entire loaf. I have it baking in the oven right now, and I’m so excited to know I can still carry on this tradition. Again, thank you so much!
Lesa, you’re so very welcome. I love these types of comments, I’m glad I could restore a tradition. 🙂
looks great what do yuo put in middle of cake what would you suggest something oooey and gorey what do you think
Lol, are you trying to turn this into a Halloween treat? I suppose you could put some sort of caramel dip or something, though the bread is sweet enough as it is.
How would this work in a loaf pan?
It should work, I don’t see why not, it might be a bit smaller than the bundt pan but otherwise it should be ok.
HI Jo,
If I want to make my own dough, which recipe from your site would you suggest that I use?
Looks yum and want to try this (but so sinful….) ;-p
Thank you.
Hi Mandy,
Yes it is sinful, isn’t it? 🙂 If you want to make your own down I would suggest using any dough from a cinnamon roll recipe, you could use the Blueberry Chocolate Rolls dough recipe. Let me know how it turns out.
Hi Jo;
It turned out awesome, and enjoyed by Grandkids and all of us..Needless to say it has all disappeared !
I also baked the Flower Dogs, and as with the Mokey Brains they also disappeared very quickly!
Thank you again for sharing your recipes and will be trying more…and making these again for sure! I love your site!
\PS The bread was awesome!
DEE
Thanks for letting me know, it always helps when you have a house full of grandkids to finish up your baked goods. 🙂
If I use my own bread dough, woud I add the melted butter and brown sugar before they rise or just before I bake them? Thankyou
I have them all in the Bundt pan rising and ready to go! YUM!!!!..Can,t wait to see how they turn out!
Hi Dianne, You don’t really need to let it rise, even if you use your own bread dough, it will still rise a bit in the oven. Let me know how it turned out. Thanks.
Could you use the pilsbury cinamaon rolls instead of the biscuits, or would it be too much you think?
I guess it would depend how much you like cinnamon, I know some people don’t like it so much, but if you truly love it like I do it would be great. I for one, would love it with cinnamon rolls. 🙂
Perhaps you could cut some of the sugar and cinnamon from the recipe though.
This looks delicious! I would eat that whole thing.
Xx