Gooey Monkey Bread

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

22 Comments

5 from 6 votes
12 servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
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Gooey Monkey Bread is a sweet, sticky treat with layers of soft, pull-apart goodness, perfect for sharing at brunch or any time of day.

You’ll love making both savory AND sweet breakfast dishes for every occasion, especially around the holidays. Try this Breakfast Casserole, Easy Cinnamon Rolls (in 1 Hour!), and Easy French Toast Bake!

Sabrina’s Gooey Monkey Bread Recipe

Monkey Bread is a holiday favorite breakfast (a Christmas morning tradition for many!) that is incredibly EASY to throw together because it uses store-bought buttermilk biscuit dough and a few extra ingredients you already have in your pantry, like cinnamon, brown sugar, and unsalted butter.

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Gooey Monkey Bread Recipe

Gooey Monkey Bread is a sweet, sticky treat with layers of soft, pull-apart goodness, perfect for sharing at brunch or any time of day.
Yield 12 servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Breakfast, Breakfast and Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
aerial view of dough stacked up on top of each other shaped in a bundt pan with drizzling on a table
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Ingredients
 

  • 36 ounces refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough (3 packages), each cut into quarters
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar , packed

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and add the sugar, cinnamon, and biscuit quarters to a ziplock bag and shake well.
  • Add the pieces to a bundt pan.
  • 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.

Video

Notes

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.

Nutrition

Calories: 513kcal | Carbohydrates: 76g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 808mg | Potassium: 219mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 37g | Vitamin A: 239IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 63mg | Iron: 3mg

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About this Recipe

It may sound simple, but it’s a sweet, pull-apart bread with a caramel-like, dessert flavor that meets coffee cake flavor. It’s a kid-friendly treat that’s fun to pull apart and easy for little helpers to prep. If your store doesn’t have biscuit dough, you can use another pop-open can of dinner roll dough to make this. The taste and texture of the classic biscuit dough version is preferred, but once you coat it in melted butter and cinnamon sugar, you might not even notice a switch in the dough you’re using.

Chef’s Note: Homemade Buttermilk

This recipe uses store-bought buttermilk biscuit dough, but you can definitely make this homemade monkey bread from scratch by using the dough from our recipe for Buttermilk Biscuits. Just rip the dough into biscuit-sized balls and follow the rest of the recipe as written. Plus, you can save some dough for later and make biscuits for dinner!

How to Store Monkey Bread

  • Serve: This recipe is best served immediately after baking. Let cool for five minutes before serving so the sugars can set and cool a little.
  • Store: This recipe can be at room temperature overnight in an airtight container or in the refrigerator for 2-3 days before it becomes too stale. Warm gently in a microwave.
  • Freeze: You can freeze monkey bread wrapped tightly for up to 3-4 weeks. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight. This is best when warm, after defrosting. Wrap in tinfoil and warm in the oven for a total time of 6-8 minutes at 325 degrees F, just until the bread is warm. This makes the butter and sugar mixture softer, so the bread will easily pull apart.

Tips & Tricks

  • Add a touch of maple syrup to the brown sugar butter mixture. Finish by topping with pieces of cooked bacon.
  • If you’re serving this bread for a holiday, make it more festive by dusting it with powdered sugar and cinnamon right before serving. You can also drizzle with some icing and top with chopped pecans.
  • Use a non-stick bundt pan to make flipping the bread onto a plate easier.
  • Save time by melting butter in a small bowl in the microwave for 1 minute at a time. Then whisk in the brown sugar until well-combined before pouring it over the biscuit dough.
  • If you don’t have a bundt pan, you can make this in a loaf pan by cutting the cooking time down by about half, then check it every 10 minutes or so.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do they call it Monkey Bread?

This is traditionally called monkey bread because the cake is made up of little dough pieces, making it easy to pull apart with your hands, like a monkey would eat it.

It’s also called golden dumpling cake, monkey puzzle bread, and pinch-me cake, and is meant to be served while it is still warm so you can easily pluck it apart. A lot of families serve this sweet bread on Christmas morning.

How do you make Caramel Sauce Monkey Bread?

Instead of melting the butter and brown sugar together, you can use a homemade caramel sauce for this monkey bread recipe instead. Here’s a homemade caramel sauce recipe, which would be the perfect sweet and sticky for match this bread!

Can you refrigerate before baking?

Yes, you can assemble the monkey bread entirely, then cover it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight. Store-bought dough makes this really easy. You don’t have to worry about the yeast rising too much and ruining the dough.

How do you store this overnight after baking?

Monkey bread can be covered tightly with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature overnight. We don’t recommend refrigerating bread after you’ve cooked the dough because it will go stale faster.

More Yummy Bread Recipes

pull-apart bread Collage

Photos used in a previous version of this post.

sweet pull-apart bread, side view
sweet pull-apart bread up close
sweet pull-apart bread pin image
aerial view of sweet pull-apart bread on cake stand
sweet pull-apart bread on cake stand being pulled apart
sweet pull-apart bread collage of assembly steps

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.

See more posts by Sabrina

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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Comments

  4. The instructions say put sugar, cinnamon and biscuits in a bag and shake until coated. Then it says to pour sugar over it. Didn’t you use all the sugar in the bag? If not, how much would be left over to pour? I’m confused. Thank you

    Reply

  5. When I make this (tried twice) mine comes out gritty (sugar) and not gooey. What am I doing wrong? I’ve had good gooey monkey bread before from other people and mine just doesn’t turn out the same. Help!

    Reply

    1. It sounds like the butter and brown sugar mixture needs to cook longer. Make sure your burner is on medium heat and then bring it to boil. Let it boil for one minute before pouring it in to the pan. Hope this helps for next time.

      Reply

  6. This recipe was amazing I cannot thank you enough very easy fast and I love the fact that you can click on the times and have a kitchen timer on your phone that’s perfect thank you so much have a great evening

    Reply

  11. Looks gorgeous! I’m not sure why I never made monkey bread before but I look forward to trying yours. I have tried few of your cookie recipes and they turned out perfect.

    Reply

  13. This looks so delicious! I can almost smell it baking in the oven! Perfect as part of a holiday brunch menu!

    Reply