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Breakfast
A sweet and tasty monkey bread recipe, perfect for breakfast. Light brioche dough balls are tossed in cinnamon sugar and baked until sticky and gooey!
To recipe
Recipe insights & TIPS
This easy monkey bread recipe is perfect for a lazy weekend breakfast. Each little nugget of bread is rolled in cinnamon sugar and then drizzled with a sweet vanilla glaze!
I've always had a sweet tooth for breakfast. Whether it might be a chocolate croissant or a blueberry scone, you can be sure I'd probably try those two before I had a breakfast burrito. So I'm surprised I don't already have a monkey bread recipe on the blog. This cinnamon bread is similar but baked in a loaf pan and without as much cinnamon sugar. As I was making this monkey bread recipe, I couldn't stop thinking about al of the different options I could make with this dough, even a savory version with sundries tomatoes, olives and oregano or a pizza style monkey bread!
What Is Monkey Bread?
Monkey bread is a soft, sweet bread made up of many individual balls of dough. After rolling the dough pieces in your hand, you toss them in a cinnamon brown sugar mixture a little bit like how you'd make a snickerdoodle cookie. The sugary dough balls are then piled up with each other in a bundt cake and then baked after proofing. The individual pieces of dough end up sweet and sticky as it bakes.
Do I Need Any Special Equipment?
You'll need a bundt pan or tube pan to make the monkey bread and like any bundt cake the pan will need to be well greased. The last thing you want is for the bread to stick to the pan making it harder to release the monkey bread. I always like to grease my baking pans and tins with lots of butter.
Is This Monkey Bread a No Yeast Variety?
No, my monkey bread dough requires yeast. There are recipes available that use flaky biscuit dough from a refrigerated can. Although these are much quicker to make and slightly easier, I believe making this easy brioche style dough provides much more satisfaction and more of a traditional bread recipe. It takes a little extra time but worth it! This dough can also be used for cinnamon buns.
Do I Have To Use The Glaze?
No, it's completely optional and just provides that extra gooeyness that we all love in our sweet breakfast breads. I recommend only adding the icing glaze just before you serve it and its okay to let it drip all over. This is a messy bread that requires licking your fingers. Serve with hot coffee and lots of napkins!
Can I make It The Night Before?
Yes you can but I'd keep it in the pan and cover it with plastic wrap to stop it from drying out overnight. If the monkey bread won't release from the pan when you turn it upside down, place the pan (bread facing up) on a gas burner and warm over the flame for 10-20 seconds moving it around. This will warm up and dissolve the pieces of sugar that can harden and prevent the bread from coming out of the pan.
Recipe
A sweet and tasty monkey bread recipe, perfect for breakfast. Light brioche dough balls are tossed in cinnamon sugar and baked until sticky and gooey!
Course:
Breakfast
COOKing TIME:
145 minutes
Total TIME:
290 minutes
CUISINE:
American
PREP TIME:
145 minutes
Ingredients
FOR THE CINNAMON SUGAR
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
FOR THE DOUGH
- 3 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, divided Plus more for kneading
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
FOR THE CARAMEL SAUCE
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
FOR THE ICING GLAZE
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
Ingredient Swaps
Instructions
- Butter a bundt pan or tube pan liberally with butter and set aside.
- Combine both sugars and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.
- Place the yeast and water in a bowl and let sit for 3-4 minutes then whisk to dissolve any yeast left.
- Add the sugar and egg and whisk.
- Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the flour and beat with a spatula until smooth.
- Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Add the oil and salt and mix.
- Fold in the remaining 1 cup of flour and mix well. The dough will still be sticky.
- Transfer the dough to a well floured work surface and dust with some extra flour.
- Begin to knead the dough adding more flour if its still too sticky.
- You want the dough to become a ball shape and then place it into a clean bowl which has been lightly greased with some olive oil.
- Cover again and let rise for 45 minutes.
- Transfer the dough to your work surface again and punch it down until flat.
- Divide the dough into four even pieces then divide those four pieces into 8 equal sized pieces.
- Finally divide those 8 pieces into 6 even sized pieces.
- Roll each piece into a ball and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat well.
- Place each dough ball into your prepared bundt pan oiling them up on top of each other.
- Once all of the dough has been rolled, sprinkle some extra cinnamon sugar over the dough and cover for another 30-40 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- To make the caramel sauce. Bring the brown sugar and butter to a boil and simmer for 1 minute.
- Once the dough has risen to about an inch from the top of the pan, pour the caramel sauce over the dough.
- Place it in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
- Let cool for 10-15 minutes before turning upside down and placing onto a plate.
- Serve as is or pour the icing over the surface.
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