This homemade monkey bread is a classic pull-apart bread! It’s made with a homemade sweet dough and coated with a healthy dose of cinnamon sugar! The bottom of the bundt pan is filled with a melted butter brown sugar mixture that makes the top pieces of the monkey bread the best part of the whole thing!
Homemade Monkey Bread
Monkey bread is a pretty popular dessert, at least at my house. It’s actually an all-time favorite of mine. I’m setting aside the store-bought cans of biscuits today and making homemade monkey bread with a sweet dough that can be whipped up in 15 minutes.
I have to be real with you for one minute… popping those cans of biscuits scares the life out of me! I hold the can as far away from me as possible, shut my eyes nice and tight, and then give it a squeeze on the seam. Please tell me I’m not the only one that hates popping cans of biscuits!!
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How to make Homemade Monkey Bread
I like to add the yeast, warm water, and sugar into a bowl and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes until it’s foamy. If the yeast doesn’t get foamy, dump the mixture out and start over because your yeast didn’t activate. It happens sometimes if your yeast was stored at room temperature or if your water is too hot.
While waiting for the yeast to become foamy, grab a bowl and get your milk and butter warming. I just pop it in the microwave, but it can also be done in a small saucepan. If you’re doing it in a saucepan, heat it until bubbles begin to form around the outside edges. Don’t let it boil.
Add the yeast mixture and milk mixture into the stand mixer bowl. Add some more sugar and stir. Dump in the bread flour and beat with the dough hook until the bread comes together and forms a smooth ball. If you don’t have a stand mixer, feel free to knead with your hands on a floured surface until you have a smooth ball. Coat the dough with vegetable oil, throw a tea towel on top and let it rise until it’s doubled.
Heat the brown sugar and butter in a saucepan until the butter is melted. Pour it into a greased bundt pan and get working on the dough. Punch the dough down and roll it out to about an inch thickness on a floured surface. (This is a great time to get out any aggression!) Slice the dough into 1-inch strips and go the opposite direction cutting 1-inch strips. These don’t need to be perfect. I just eyeballed my measurements! You should have little squares.
Roll the pieces of dough in a bowl of cinnamon and sugar and pop them into the prepared bundt. It’s that easy.
Make Ahead Homemade Monkey Bread
This is one of my favorite tricks because it works perfectly when you are busy! To make the dough a day ahead, start by making the dough. After the smooth dough ball is formed, coat it in vegetable oil, cover with plastic wrap and place into the fridge. The next day place it in a warm area and let it rise until doubled. It will take several hours since it needs to first come up to room temperature.
Tips for making homemade monkey bread
- If the top pieces of bread start getting too dark while in the oven, loosely cover with a piece of tin foil.
- Only let the monkey bread rest for the maximum of 5 minutes in the bundt pan after baking it. If it goes longer, the brown sugar sticks to the bottom of the bundt pan.
- Use a serving platter/cake plate with a raised outer edge to prevent the brown sugar syrup from pouring all over.
- The monkey bread is even better the second day. The bread becomes soft all over and the flavors really soak into the bread.
Add fruit and nuts for different flavor variations:
- Banana Monkey Bread: add sliced bananas on top of the butter brown sugar mixture before adding the pieces of dough.
- Blueberry Monkey Bread: mix fresh blueberries in when adding the pieces of dough coated with cinnamon sugar
- Raspberry Monkey Bread: mix fresh raspberries in with the pieces of dough coated with cinnamon sugar
- Pecan Monkey Bread: add pecans on top of the butter brown sugar mixture before adding the pieces of dough.
Homemade Monkey Bread
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
50 mins
Resting Time
1 hr 30 mins
Total Time
1 hr 20 mins
This homemade monkey bread is made with a homemade sweet dough and coated with a healthy dose of cinnamon sugar! The bottom of the bundt pan is filled with a melted butter brown sugar mixture that makes the top pieces of the monkey bread the best part of the whole thing!
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Topping
- 1/2 cup salted butter cubed
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
Bread
- 3/4 cup warm water. 110°
- 1 T. dry yeast
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup butter cubed
- 1/2 cups + 1 tsp. granulated sugar divided
- 5 1/4 cups bread flour divided
- 1 T. vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Instructions
Bread
- In a small bowl, add in the yeast, warm water, and the 1 teaspoon of sugar. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes until foamy.
- In a medium saucepan, add in the butter and milk. Place over medium heat until bubbles form around the edges of the pan and the butter is completely melted.
- Add the yeast mixture and milk mixture into a stand mixer bowl fitted with a dough hook.
- Add the remaining sugar and whisk to combine.
- Add in 5 cups of bread flour and knead until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a smooth ball of dough.
- Drizzle the vegetable oil on top of the dough. Roll the dough in the bowl until it's completely coated with vegetable oil.
- Cover with a tea towel and place into a warm place to rise. I like to set my oven to 200 degrees and sit the bowl in the back center of the stovetop.
- Once the dough has doubled, punch it down.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray your bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside and make the topping to go into the bundt pan.
Topping
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add in the butter and brown sugar. Let the butter melt while stirring occasionally.
- Once the butter is melted, pour the topping into the prepared bundt pan.
- Dust a clean work surface with 1/4 cup of flour.
- Roll the dough out to a 1-inch thickness.
- Cut the dough into 1-inch squares. They don't need to be perfect!
- In a medium bowl, add the sugar and ground cinnamon. Stir to combine.
- Roll the 1-inch squares in the cinnamon and sugar. I usually do about 15 pieces at a time.
- Add the cinnamon and sugar coated dough into the bundt pan.
- Once the dough is all coated and placed into the bundt pan, cover with a tea towel and let rise for 30 minutes.
- Place into the preheated oven and bake for 50 minutes. If the dough gets too brown on top, loosely place a piece of tin foil on top of the dough.
- Remove from the oven and let rest for no longer than 5 minutes.
- Place a platter with a lifted edge on top of the bundt pan and flip it so the platter is sitting on the counter.
- Work the monkey bread out of the pan by first lifting one side of the pan and then the other side.
- Let cool and serve up!
why evaporated milk??