Homemade Monkey Bread From Scratch (and Make Ahead Option)

An easy homemade monkey bread recipe made from a simple yeast dough, butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar that makes the BEST caramely cinnamon roll pull apart bites. Bake the same day or choose the make ahead option that rises overnight in the fridge and bakes fresh in the morning. It’s our Christmas morning tradition, but is great any time of the year!

Christmas brunch is a 30+ year tradition at our house, and once I simplified our traditional brunch after years of doing too much (that no one but me really cared about) I set about to find a special sweet bread to round out the egg and bacon dishes.

Since we have The Best Cinnamon Rolls in The World during our extended family celebration the weekend before Christmas, I wanted something different that we’d all love and look forward to each year (yes, I’m kind of big on traditions).

I’ve made cranberry cane shaped pastries, scones, sour cream coffee cakes, single pan sticky buns, and various other sweet breads and we enjoyed them all…but they weren’t the ‘one.’

Until I made brown sugar-cinnamon monkey bread.

Fun, delicious, and special – it’s exactly what we’ve come to love as our traditional Christmas morning sweet bread and goes perfectly with our other brunch recipes.

Note: If you’re curious what else our easy, low-stress Christmas morning brunch looks like, I’ve listed all the Christmas brunch recipes here and created a cute menu printable to make your table that much more special!

But do you know how hard it was to find a recipe for monkey bread that uses real ingredients – no pudding mixes or canned biscuits – AND could be made ahead and baked Christmas morning?

Too hard apparently, because I couldn’t find one.

I wasn’t going back to the complicated brunches of my memory, though, so I created my own easy real food make-ahead version, adapting a Cook’s Illustrated recipe that used real ingredients and then experimenting with overnight refrigeration and morning baking.

The monkey bread turned out absolutely perfect and I am so happy to share the recipe with you and save you a bunch of searching!

Ingredients

• Milk – I’ve used whole and 2% milk, but not milk substitutes – if you’ve used some in other bread dough with success, it should work here, too.
• Butter – both for the dough and melted for coating.
• Sugar – or honey since it’s just the bit in the dough.
• Yeast – instant or active dry yeast work.
• Unbleached flour – I don’t usually add whole wheat to this since we have it once a year, but once used 1 cup whole wheat for the unbleached and it was fine.
• Salt – regular sea salt.
• Brown sugar
• Cinnamon
• Optional: powdered sugar and milk for glaze.

Equipment

• Stand Mixer – see FAQ section for making by hand or using a bread machine.
• Bundt pan (not removable bottom angel food cake pans, though – they leak) – I’ve seen the bread made in large loaf pans, too, though I’m not sure if you’d need one or two pans for this recipe.
• Measuring cups, spoons, small bowls for butter and cinnamon sugar for coating.

How to Make Homemade Monkey Bread

Detailed quantities and instructions are included in the full recipe box below, but here are a few extra tips to help with each step:

Step 1: Combine melted butter and sugar/honey for dough with yeast in a glass measuring cup. Mix flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer, then add yeast mixture. Mix and then knead 6 minutes.

Step 2: Remove dough from mixing bowl, oil the bowl and then replace the dough in the bowl (one less bowl to wash!) and cover with plastic. Let rise an hour.

Step 3: Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface (I use a tea towel for easy clean up) and pat into a 8×9″ rough rectangle. Use a long knife to cut into 64 pieces (it doesn’t matter if some are smaller than others).

Step 4: Generously coat a bundt pan with softened butter. Roughly shape each dough piece into a ball, dip in melted butter and then the sugar-cinnamon mixture and start layering them in the buttered pan.

TIP: The beauty of monkey bread is that the balls don’t need to be uniform in size since they’re all piled atop one another, so it’s great for kids. My daughter and I like to dip the balls together – one dips in melted butter and the other in the brown-sugar-cinnamon mixture – before we layer them in the well-buttered bundt pan.

Working together my daughter and I can get all the balls coated in about 15 minutes.

Step 5: Choose to bake today or refrigerate to bake the next morning:

• To Bake Today: Cover pan and let rise for an hour either on the counter or in a warmed oven if your kitchen is cold (heat oven to 150-200 degrees and turn off – add pan and leave the door slightly ajar). Heat oven to 350 (removing pan if you’re rising in the oven) and bake for 30-40 minutes until very brown and bubbling.
• To Bake The Next Morning: Simply cover the pan and put it in the refrigerator until the next morning. Sweet and simple!

The monkey bread rises some in the fridge, and rises a bit more when you set it out 45 minutes to an hour before baking to bring it back to room temperature. Then bake as instructed.

Let the baked bread sit in the pan for about 5 minutes before carefully turning it out onto a large platter (use hot pads to hold the pan).

Drizzling the loaf with a simple powdered sugar-milk glaze is optional, but we wouldn’t go without it!

Storage

IF there’s any leftover, it can be covered and left on the counter for a day or refrigerated for a few days. Heat in an air fryer or toaster oven for a bit (it’s not great leftover, but toasting helps a lot).

You can freeze sections for longer storage (1-2 months) – thaw and toast a bit before serving.

FAQs

Here are some questions I’ve gotten about this homemade monkey bread recipe.

More Easy Sweet Bread Recipes

• The Best Cinnamon Rolls, Period.
• Frosted Maple-Oat Scones
• Cranberry Crumb Muffins
• Sticky Bun Sourdough Coffee Cake

We LOVE this monkey bread so much and everyone who visits us on Christmas day loves it – so I’m sure it’s destined to become one of your family’s favorites. too.

I especially love how it fills the house with wonderful cinnamony goodness while we are relaxing together and enjoying our family time – no stress required!

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4.66 from 66 votes

Homemade Monkey Bread Recipe – From Scratch with Make Ahead Option

An easy, yeast dough monkey bread that you can make right away or keep overnight in the fridge to bake in the morning. Everyone's favorite recipe and fun to do with the kids!

Prep Time45 minutes mins

Cook Time40 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Yield: 12 servings

1x2x3x

Author: Jami Boys

Equipment

• stand mixer
• bundt pan

Click for Cook Mode

Ingredients

For Dough:

• 1 ⅓ cup milk warmed to 110-115 degrees
• 4 tablespoons butter divided (2 melted and 2 softened for pan)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon yeast (both instant or active dry work)
• 3 ¼ cup unbleached flour* may need up to 1/4 cup more when kneading
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt

For Coating & Glaze:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, optional
• 1 tablespoon milk, optional

Instructions

Make Dough:

• Add milk, 2 tablespoons melted butter, sugar and yeast to a large measuring cup and stir to combine. Mix 3¼ cup flour and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer with a dough hook on low.** Slowly add the milk-yeast mixture and stir until dough comes together. Increase speed to next level and knead the dough for abut 6 minutes, adding 2-3 tablespoons of flour (a tablespoon at a time) as needed for dough to clear sides of bowl (the dough should still be sticking to the bottom of the bowl, though).
• Remove dough from mixing bowl to a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball. Coat bowl with oil (I simply use the bowl I mixed in), replace dough in bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave to sit until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• Use the 2 tablespoons of softened butter to liberally coat a Bundt pan.
• Remove dough to a lightly floured surface (I use a tea towel for easy clean up) and pat into about an 8×9″ rough rectangle. Use a long knife to cut into 64 pieces – it doesn’t matter if they’re even or not.

Coat Dough:

• Place the melted butter in one small bowl and combine brown sugar and cinnamon in another bowl.
• Roll each piece of dough into a rough ball, dip in melted butter and then roll in the brown sugar coating. Place in buttered pan, layering and staggering dough balls as needed to make an even loaf. Sprinkle any extra sugar-cinnamon mixture on the top.

To Bake Today:

• Cover pan with plastic and set in a warm place to rise for an hour. Preheat oven to 350 during the last 15 minutes of rise time.
• Remove cover, place in heated oven and bake 30-40 minutes until the bread is very browned and the sides are bubbling. Cool for 5 minutes in pan before turning out onto a serving platter (use hot pads to hold the pan, as it will still be hot).

Make Ahead to Bake In The Morning:

• Cover pan with plastic and leave out on counter for 30 minutes before placing in the refrigerator to finish rising slowly overnight.
• Remove pan from refrigerator abut 2 hours before you want to serve it. Leave at room temperature, still covered, 45 minutes to 1 hour and preheat oven to 350 degrees the last 15 minutes.
• Remove cover, place in heated oven and bake 30-40 minutes until the bread is very browned and the sides are bubbling. Cool for 5 minutes in pan before turning out onto a serving platter (use hot pads to hold the pan, as it will still be hot).

Make Optional Glaze:

• Whisk together powdered sugar and milk to a pouring consistency. Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the warm monkey bread and serve while still warm.

Notes

*You can use up to 1 cup of whole wheat flour in place of 1 cup of unbleached flour.

**No stand mixer? You can mix with a wooden spoon until the ingredients come together and then knead on a floured surface, adding more as needed, for about 8-10 minutes, then continue with the recipe as written.

Storage: IF there’s any leftover, it can be covered and left on the counter for a day or refrigerated for a few days. Heat in an air fryer or toaster oven for a bit (to be honest, it’s not great leftover, but toasting helps a lot).

Nutrition

Serving: 0.75cup | Calories: 331kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 383mg | Potassium: 110mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 340IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 1mg

Did you make this recipe?Mention @anoregoncottage or tag #anoregoncottage!

This recipe has been updated – it was originally published in January 2014, and updated in 2016 and 2023.