Kids and adults can’t resist doughy, sweet, pull-apart monkey bread! This easy 5-ingredient monkey bread recipe uses biscuit dough rolled into tiny balls and dipped in butter, cinnamon, and sugar. It’s simple to make and is the best monkey bread recipe!
I’ve been making this easy monkey bread recipe for years. This dates back to my nanny days when I had to think of fun to do with the kids on a Friday night. Let me tell you, monkey bread was a hit, and we had so much fun making it!
Fast forward 20 years, and I still make this recipe on Saturday mornings! This easy recipe tastes as good as sticky buns or cinnamon rolls. It’s a sweet treat the entire family will enjoy for brunch or dessert.Â
Also, check out my favorite super moist banana bread, the easiest pumpkin bread, the best blueberry muffins ever, and our very popular coconut loaf. They’re all fantastic and perfect recipes for brunch.Â
Why This Recipe Works
I’ve been making this recipe for over 20 years; here are some reasons why we love it and why it works:
- This recipe has been made by hundreds of people who all love it as much as I do!
- It’s easy to make using canned biscuit dough, which is just as good as homemade but with half the effort.Â
- You only need a few ingredients when making monkey bread, which you can find at your local grocery store.Â
- It’s an easy recipe to follow, and you can bake it in a bundt pan or a loaf pan.
Everything about this monkey bread is easy. It stores well, is customizable, you can prep it in advance and lasts long enough to get away with big batches.
Shopping List and Ingredient Notes
This recipe is so easy and with just five simple ingredients! Full recipe in the recipe card below.
Canned Biscuits – A can of biscuits makes the best gooey, delicious monkey bread. We used Immaculate organic flaky biscuits, but Pillsbury biscuits will work, too. You’ll need two cans of biscuits.
Dark Brown Sugar – Adds a deep and sweet flavor to the bread, giving it a rich, caramel-like flavor that is difficult to replicate with other ingredients. It also helps create a beautiful, golden-brown color as the bread bakes in the oven.Â
Cinnamon – Adds a sweet and spicy flavor to monkey bread that complements the sweetness of the sugar. It also helps to give the bread its signature brown hue, making it look as good as it tastes.
Granulated Sugar – This sugar adds a hint of sweetness to the bread. It’s mixed with ground cinnamon for the cinnamon-sugar flavor.Â
Butter – Adds flavor and gives the monkey bread a rich and moist texture. Each dough ball is rolled in butter before coating with cinnamon and sugar. We also pour melted butter over the top of the bread to give it a golden-brown exterior that is full of flavor.
Easy Glaze Recipe
I love adding a sweet and gooey glaze over the top. It’s easy to make and adds more sweetness!
- Add 1/4 cup powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon of milk to make the glaze and mix until smooth.
- Pour over the monkey bread before serving.
Another option is to drizzle our easy caramel sauce over the top as a glaze. It becomes like sticky bread and is full of buttery caramel flavor!
Storage Tips
Most bread products dry up and get tough to chew over time. Given its high surface area, Monkey bread allows some bits to stay moist longer than you’d think.
You can safely leave monkey bread on the counter for a few days. The surface sugars will harden if you let them stay in contact with air, so covering is ideal.
Freezing Instructions: Keep it airtight and tightly wrapped before storage. Freezing is the best way to keep the monkey bread fresh and lasting.
Flavor Variations
This recipe is a beautiful base for endless variations. Here are a few ways you can change this recipe:
Caramel Apple Monkey Bread—This variation combines diced apples, caramel sauce, and spices for a sweet and delicious treat. Cut the apples into small pieces and add them to the layers of dough.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Monkey Bread: This version adds creamy peanut butter and cocoa powder for richness and flavor. Add a peanut butter layer over the dough.
Gluten-Free Monkey Bread: If you want to try and make this recipe gluten-free, we recommend making gluten-free biscuit dough and then rolling it into small balls.
Garlic Parmesan: For savory monkey bread, swap out the cinnamon and sugar for grated parmesan cheese garlic powder.
Orange Cardamom: This is one of my favorite flavor combinations. I also use it in my apple cider donuts recipe. Add fresh orange zest and ground cardamom to the cinnamon and sugar mixture.Â
More Brunch Recipes You’ll Love
There are a lot of benefits to making easy monkey bread, and it works for any season. If you’re looking for more breakfast recipes, check out these:
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Easy Monkey Bread Recipe
Ingredients
Monkey Bread Recipe
- 2 cans biscuit dough
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/8 cup ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup butter
Simple Glaze
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions
- Break the biscuits into small balls of dough.
- Roll the dough into small balls, about 3 tablespoons per ball.
- Grease an entire deep-dish loaf pan with butter. You can also use a bundt pan for this recipe. Cooking spray is another option for greasing the bottom and sides of the pan.
- Combine cinnamon and sugar in a medium bowl and stir.
- Roll each dough piece in the cinnamon mixture.
- Add a single layer of dough balls to the bottom of the pan. Then sprinkle 1/8 cup of the brown sugar over the layer, leaving the other 1/8 cup for the next layer.
- Continue creating another layer of dough over the first layer, and sprinkle brown sugar over the top.
- Depending on the size of the pan, you should have two layers of dough balls in the pan. You might have extra dough, but you don’t need it.Â
- Melt the butter and pour it over the top of the dough before baking.Â
- Sprinkle on some of the leftover cinnamon and sugar mixture.Â
- Then, bake the bread in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes. Check the directions for how long to cook depending on what biscuits you’re using.Â
- The monkey bread will be golden brown on the top and that’s what you want. It’s important to cook all the way through so you don’t have a doughy inside.Â
- To make the glaze, add 1/4 cup powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon milk and mix until smooth.Â
- Pour over the monkey bread before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
Monkey bread is a sweet, gooey cinnamon roll-like bread made from balls of dough rolled in cinnamon sugar. It has biscuit dough, cinnamon, white sugar, and butter. It is baked together to create a fantastic sticky cinnamon bread for brunch.
This bread is best right out of the oven when it’s fresh, warm, and gooey. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container, covered tightly in the refrigerator, for one week.
While the combination of sugar and toppings (especially caramel) leaves the overall texture on the gooey side, the bread shouldn’t be. While you want the middle soft, you don’t want it to have that near-custard texture of a French toast puff.  Internal temps won’t give you a good enough indicator of doneness, nor will you check in one spot.Â
Use a long toothpick or fork to poke in a variety of places. You want to aim for the thicker parts. A clean fork means done. A sticky fork needs another minute.
Remember to plate monkey bread quickly after it leaves the oven. This will prevent it from hardening on your cooking surfaces.
Though you’ve probably seen many store-bought versions come in the traditional Bundt shape, it’s unnecessary. Monkey bread cooks in a bread pan, a cookie sheet, ramekins, or a loaf pan.
If you prefer to use a tube pan, that is fine. If you release it from the bundt pan, ensure the sides are greased.
You want to be careful to balance the thickness to avoid uneven cooking.Â
Reheat monkey bread to 140 F to melt the sugars and rehydrate the bread.Â
If you leave it on the counter, there is no need to reheat it; it’s perfectly wonderful at room temperature.Â
You can make monkey bread ahead of time. Form the dough into balls and add them to a greased bundt pan and other ingredients like sugar, butter, and cinnamon. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. When ready to bake, remove the plastic wrap and bake as directed.
What is monkey bread? It’s a gooey, sweet pull-apart bread made with dough, butter, cinnamon, and sugar. It can be baked in a bundt or loaf pan until the dough is golden and perfect. Once the bread is done, a glaze is drizzled over the top. It’s one of the easiest desserts to make and SO incredibly tasty.
You can swap out biscuit dough for crescent rolls. Use two cans of crescent rolls, slice and roll them into small balls. Then proceed with the recipe as you would using biscuit dough.
Tried this amazing Monkey Bread today and my husband and I cannot stop eating it! So delicious!
These are good but the recipe is confusing –
4. combine cinnamon and sugars or just the cinnamon and white sugar – since later you are supposed to sprinkle with brown sugar – or the brown sugar mix?
6. Coat the bottom (with the cinnamon covered balls?)
It would help to have the ingredients listed as they are used. This is why #4 is confusing to start.
Check out the recipe card at the bottom of the post for a list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions.
Absolutely the best monkey bread!! Thank you!! My family loved this recipe!!!
I love making this with the boys. Always fun and always good!
Hi. I have a loaf of bread dough that I thawed. Can I use that instead of the biscuits???
In the “how long will is last” section, it should say not long once your family gets their hands on it, haha! I’m making it again this afternoon because it’s already gone.
I love this monkey bread! So glad I have monkeys of my own to share it with, this is too big of a temptation to have on my own!
We are obsessed with monkey bread over here. So yummy! the perfect treat for chilly nights
This recipe was so easy and totally delicious. Perfect treat!!
Thank you, Laura!
This was SO delicious! What a fun breakfast bread. Easier than cinnamon rolls and JUST as yummy! We’ll definitely make this one again!
Glad you liked it Lisalia!!
This is actually something really fun to prep with my son and it’s nice that it doesn’t have to turn out “pretty”. Definitely kid friendly and approved!
I LOVE monkey bread, it is so fun to pull apart and it is super easy to make. 🙂 🙂