Monkey Bread Recipe Serious Eats

Alexandra Penfold is a literary agent, author, blogger, and recipe developer who has contributed an extensive number of baking and candy recipes to Serious Eats. 

Planning brunch for a crowd? Skip the flowers for the table and instead serve up an edible centerpiece. I'm not talking flora made of cantaloupe. Think sticky. Think gooey. Think Monkey Bread.

Imagine dozens of cinnamon roll nuggets piled together and bound by caramel and you have Monkey Bread. Fluffy balls of yeast dough are dipped in plenty of butter, then rolled in plenty of brown sugar and baked in a Bundt pan to form a puzzle-cake. Drizzle it with a sweet glaze then serve it up warm and let the frenzy begin. Tearing it apart by hand is half the fun. If ever there was a dessert tailor-made for gluttony, it would be Monkey Bread.

I Made) Monkey Bread For The First Time, Not The Fanciest Thing On Here But It Turned Out Great. Just Wanted To Share.

The name Monkey Bread is sometimes attributed to silent film actress Zasu Pitts, but the exact origins of the breakfast treat are unknown. A similar recipe made the rounds in 1950s women's magazines as bubbleloaf on account of it being made up of distinct sections. Monkey Bread saw a resurgence in the '80s after Nancy Regan served it at the White House. Many recipes suggest using refrigerated biscuit dough, which works fine, but there's really no substitute for the light texture of homemade dough. While giving the dough a double rise is more time consuming, you're guaranteed to find yourself leftoverless.

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.Alexandra Penfold is a literary agent, author, blogger, and recipe developer who has contributed an extensive number of baking and candy recipes to Serious Eats. 

I've written about my love of monkey bread before. It's a family favorite and a dish that regularly makes an appearance for special occasion brunches. But I've recently had a brainstorm that's caused me to rethink monkey bread completely: Challah. Light, fluffy challah would make an amazing base for monkey bread. After some hours in the test kitchen, I'm forsaking all other monkey breads for this one.

Vegan Monkey Bread W/ Caramel

As with any monkey bread, fluffy balls of yeasted dough are dipped in plenty of butter, then rolled in brown sugar and baked in a Bundt pan to form interlocking layers of a puzzle-like cake. But here's the thing about challah monkey bread—every single piece is like that perfect gooey center of a cinnamon roll (the cinnamon roll filet, if you will.)The dough has a certain lightness and softness yet still has a nice chew to it.

Monkey bread is meant to be eaten with your hands, but the problem is there's no defined portion because every little cinna-nugget tastes like you need another one and when you take off one piece, well, you have to even it up again. If you've made New Year's resolutions, I'm sorry, but this is worth breaking them for. I highly recommend making it for a crowd. You probably won't want to share this monkey bread, but you'll feel better if you do.

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.It's a funny name, and it's a fun loaf of bread. I don't know what it is about pull-apart loaves, but they invite nibbling. People who would normally eat one slice of bread often find themselves unable to resist pulling off just one more little bit. And then one more. And then this little piece is dangling ... this bread simply doesn't last long.

Overnight Monkey Bread

While I normally suggest that you don't slice a loaf of bread until it's completely cooled, the monkey bread doesn't want you to wait. Go ahead and serve it warm.

When most people think of monkey bread, they think of the cinnamon-sugar version, but there's no reason why you can't make an herby, savory version that's perfect for lunch, brunch, or dinner. The flavors I chose for this one were garlic, paprika, rosemary and thyme. If you now have a song stuck in your head, don't blame me. And if you don't like the combination of flavors I chose, use whatever you like.

I baked mine in a square glass baking dish, mostly because I had just pulled it out of the dishwasher and it was convenient, but you could bake it in a loaf pan, cake pan, or any fancy-shaped baking dish you have. If you're feeling artistic, you could arrange the dough balls in a pattern, or just leave it random and rustic. I used a little bit of white wheat flour in this recipe, with mostly all-purpose white flour. Feel free to adjust that ratio any way you'd like.

Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread {15 Minutes Prep!}

I gave directions for kneading this with a stand mixer, but because of the long initial rest the gluten is well on its way to being developed before the kneading starts, so this would be a good candidate for learning how to hand knead. It won't take long at all.

The instruction for making the herbed butter is written for a food processor or other similar device, but you can certainly do this step by hand. I used dry herbs because I like the results for baked toppings, but you can use fresh. Just keep in mind that dried herbs are usually about 3 times as strong as fresh (assuming that your dried herbs haven't been in the spice cabinet for ten years) so you'll need more fresh herbs for the same amount of flavor.

*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2, 000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Monkey Bread {best Ever And Homemade}

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.

While I normally suggest that you don't slice a loaf of bread until it's completely cooled, the monkey bread doesn't want you to wait. Go ahead and serve it warm.

When most people think of monkey bread, they think of the cinnamon-sugar version, but there's no reason why you can't make an herby, savory version that's perfect for lunch, brunch, or dinner. The flavors I chose for this one were garlic, paprika, rosemary and thyme. If you now have a song stuck in your head, don't blame me. And if you don't like the combination of flavors I chose, use whatever you like.

I baked mine in a square glass baking dish, mostly because I had just pulled it out of the dishwasher and it was convenient, but you could bake it in a loaf pan, cake pan, or any fancy-shaped baking dish you have. If you're feeling artistic, you could arrange the dough balls in a pattern, or just leave it random and rustic. I used a little bit of white wheat flour in this recipe, with mostly all-purpose white flour. Feel free to adjust that ratio any way you'd like.

Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread {15 Minutes Prep!}

I gave directions for kneading this with a stand mixer, but because of the long initial rest the gluten is well on its way to being developed before the kneading starts, so this would be a good candidate for learning how to hand knead. It won't take long at all.

The instruction for making the herbed butter is written for a food processor or other similar device, but you can certainly do this step by hand. I used dry herbs because I like the results for baked toppings, but you can use fresh. Just keep in mind that dried herbs are usually about 3 times as strong as fresh (assuming that your dried herbs haven't been in the spice cabinet for ten years) so you'll need more fresh herbs for the same amount of flavor.

*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2, 000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Monkey Bread {best Ever And Homemade}

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.