Carrot Cake Monkey Bread

16 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes

Carrot Cake Monkey Bread is the ultimate gooey pull-apart bread with fresh flavor from carrots and pineapples. It’s a fantastic shareable party treat!

This fun twist on Monkey Bread adds sweet and tart fruity flavors to the classic Breakfast Recipe. It’s perfect to serve in the spring and summer, especially for Easter morning.

Carrot Cake Monkey Bread cross-section on cake stand

CARROT CAKE MONKEY BREAD

Carrot Cake Monkey Bread is an unexpected and delicious way to change up a traditional monkey bread. Just like Carrot Cake it’s made with a combination of refreshing, sweet flavors from the pineapple and carrots, and warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The combination makes an indulgent, sweet, and comforting recipe for breakfast or dessert.

Both the pineapples and carrots contain a lot of moisture, which just makes the monkey bread more delicious. The liquid from them bakes into the dough for an extra sticky, gooey dish. The pineapple juice also contrasts with the taste of the butter and brown sugar for a more interesting flavor palate.

Carrot Cake Monkey Bread in bundt pan before cooking

Despite being a dish often saved for holiday breakfasts, classic American Monkey Bread is surprisingly easy to make. Using refrigerated biscuit dough speeds up the recipe. All you have to do is toss the dough with the sugar mixture, pour the brown sugar sauce over the top, and bake. Even with the added ingredients in this version, the whole recipe only takes 45 minutes!

MORE MONKEY BREAD RECIPES

TIPS FOR MAKING CARROT CAKE MONKEY BREAD

  • Prep time: Preheat your oven and spray the bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray so that the monkey bread doesn’t get stuck to the pan. To prep the ingredients, you can use a food processor to easily shred the carrots into small pieces. Take the refrigerated biscuit dough from the fridge, and cut each piece into quarters. 
  • Dough mixture: Add the dough balls, sugar, carrots, pineapple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to a large mixing bowl. Toss until the mixture is completely coating the dough. Add the dough to your bundt pan, but be careful not to press it together. 
  • HINT: Don’t drain the crushed pineapple. The pineapple juice will coat the bread and add a nice tangy flavor to the whole recipe. 
  • Brown sugar mixture: Add the butter and brown sugar to a saucepan over medium heat. Stir them together and bring the mixture to a boil before you pour it over the Monkey Bread.
  • Bake: Bake the monkey bread for 35-40 minutes. The brown sugar coating should be bubbling up when you take it from the oven. Let the warm monkey bread cool for 10-15 minutes before you flip the bundt pan over to remove it. 
  • Cream cheese icing: While the monkey bread is cooling whisk together powdered sugar, softened cream cheese, and whole milk. Once the mixture is smooth, pour the cream cheese icing over the monkey bread to serve.

Carrot Cake Monkey Bread in bundt pan after cooking

VARIATIONS ON CARROT CAKE MONKEY BREAD

  • Nuts: Often Carrot Cake is made with nuts for some nice crunchy contrast with the moist cake. You can do the same with this monkey bread by tossing in walnuts, pecans, cashews, or almonds. 
  • Cream cheese icing: To make this monkey bread even closer to a traditional carrot cake, whisk together 2 cups powdered sugar, 4 ounces softened cream cheese, and ¼ cup whole milk. Once the mixture is smooth, pour the cream cheese icing over the monkey bread to serve.
  • Toppings: If you don’t want the cream cheese icing, you can try out other toppings like Caramel Sauce, powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, or brown sugar. 
  • Honey: If you want a slightly more healthy sweet coating, try using honey to replace the brown sugar in the recipe.
  • Carrot Cake Monkey Bread Muffins: Instead of making the pull-apart bread in a full-sized bundt pan, you can make mini versions in muffin tins. Prepare the ingredients for the Carrot Cake Monkey Bread Muffins according to the recipe. Then divide the dough balls evenly into paper-lined muffin cups. Make the brown sugar coating and pour that evenly over each muffin. The Carrot Cake Monkey Bread Muffins will bake a little faster because they’re in smaller containers. So, keep your eye on them to make sure they don’t burn. 

MORE HOLIDAY BREAKFASTS

HOW TO STORE CARROT CAKE MONKEY BREAD

  • Serve: Give the Carrot Cake Monkey Bread a little bit of time to cool before you serve it. Otherwise, the hot sugar can easily burn you. 
  • Store: If you have any leftovers, you can store the recipe at room temperature or in the fridge. Let the Monkey Bread cool down, then cover it in plastic wrap to store for up to 2 days. 
  • Freeze: Unfortunately, once it’s baked the monkey bread won’t freeze and defrost well. You can however prep the recipe in advance. Toss the dough with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, fruit, and carrots. Then put it in the bundt pan and cover it to freeze. When you’re ready to make the recipe, let the dough thaw in the fridge while you make the sugar and butter coating. Then bake as usual.

Carrot Cake Monkey Bread on cake stand

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Carrot Cake Monkey Bread

Carrot Cake Monkey Bread is the ultimate gooey pull-apart bread with fresh flavor from carrots and pineapples. It's a fantastic shareable party treat!
Yield 16 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 carrot , finely shredded
  • 8 ounces crushed pineapple , do not drain
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 36 ounces refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough , each cut into quarters, (3 packages)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar , packed

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a bundt pan with baking spray.
  • Add the sugar, carrot, pineapple, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and biscuit quarters to a large bowl and toss well.
  • Add mixture to a bundt pan (do not press down).
  • Add the butter and brown sugar to a medium saucepan on medium heat and bring to a boil for one minute before pouring onto the bundt pan.
  • Bake for 35-40 minutes, remove from oven, let cool for 10-15 minutes then place a plate over the bottom of the bundt pan and flip over to remove.

Nutrition

Calories: 396kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 609mg | Potassium: 196mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 30g | Vitamin A: 824IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 53mg | Iron: 2mg

Carrot Cake Monkey Bread collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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