Cinnamon Monkey Bread

Cinnamon monkey bread with cinnamon maple icing is one of the best treats for the colder weather ahead! Monkey bread packs all of the delicious flavor, texture, and gooiness of cinnamon rolls but is served in fun pull apart style. This beautiful yeast dough is soft and fluffy with sweet and sticky bites of cinnamon sugar. It's all finished off with a cinnamon maple flavored icing!

what makes this monkey bread so good?

I LOVE any good monkey bread but I especially love a classic cinnamon version. This bread features all the best qualities of an ooey gooey cinnamon roll, but the dough is instead portioned into bite sized pieces, tossed in cinnamon sugar, and baked into one big pull apart bread.

There are a few key qualities in this recipe that make this cinnamon monkey bread SO GOOD:

• Shorter rise dough: When I first started making this recipe, I used to give the dough 2 full rises totaling about 2 hours. The more I made it, the less patience I had to wait around and NOT eat monkey bread. So I started shortening each rise - and guess what? It's equally light, fluffy, and delicious with about half the time involved! The dough will still need 2 short rests - one in the beginning to relax the gluten and make it easier to work with and one after shaping the monkey bread. But it's ready much quicker than traditional monkey bread recipes.
• Lazy monkey bread trick: If you've made monkey bread before, you may know that the dough balls are usually portioned out then dipped into melted butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar - one at a time. That's crazy time consuming, tedious, and creates more dishes - and it's not even necessary. I go into more detail on the specifics of how to coat the dough bellow, but basically, we're just tossing everything together in a bowl!
• Fluffy, ooey, and gooey: The textures that are going on in this monkey bread are everything and more! The dough portions are SO light and fluffy on the inside and have a deep brown and gooey exterior. This is NOT a diet friendly dessert - just fair warning. It's not skimpy on the butter or sugar which are both key to achieving it's classic sticky and melty feel. If you love cinnamon rolls but wish they were gooier, then this is definitely the treat for you!
• Maple cinnamon icing: I don't know why it took me so long to try maple cinnamon icing with monkey bread, but OH BOY is it delicious. Maple syrup pairs so perfectly with all the other warm and cozy flavors going on here. And although the dough is full of cinnamon flavor, a hint of fresh cinnamon added to the icing helps draw it out even more.

how to make monkey bread dough

Even if you don't have a lot of experience working with yeast, this dough is still super easy to make. The first step involves heating the milk and butter together until the butter is almost fully melted and the whole mixture is warm. This can be done in the microwave or over the stove.

Next, the egg is whisked into the milk and butter to combine. Finally, the wet and dry ingredients for the dough are combined in a bowl. Then all that's left to do is knead the dough.

We start by mixing everything together until it starts coming together into a rough dough. It will be sticky, so keep flour on hand to gradually add it in. The dough is then kneaded until smooth and no longer sticky.

You can knead the dough by hand directly in the bowl or on a lightly floured wooden board if you prefer. You could also use a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, but keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn't over knead.

This dough is extremely forgiving, but there are still some things to keep in mind to ensure it comes out perfectly light and fluffy:

1. Temperature: The temperature of your ingredients can make or break a yeast bread. Ingredients that are too cold will not activate the yeast efficiently enough, while ingredients that are too hot could kill the yeast and render it unusable. The egg should be room temperature while the liquids (milk and butter) should feel warm like tap water you would wash your hands with.
2. Kneading: Under or over kneading yeast dough can impact the final result - so look out for the following signs to see when the dough is perfect. First, the dough will start pulling away from the sides of the bowl. The surface of the dough should be smooth and no longer sticky. If you gently poke the top of the dough, it should slowly rise back up to fill the indent your finger left. If it doesn't, it needs more kneading.
3. Resting and rising: This dough requires two short rests. Resting the dough is important to allow the flour to hydrate, relax the gluten, make it easier to work with, and give the yeast enough time to ferment (which all contribute to the airy, fluffy texture of the final bread).

an easier way to coat monkey bread dough

This recipe uses a simple trick to coat the individual portions of dough in cinnamon sugar. While traditional monkey bread recipes dip each portion in the coating individually, we're just going to throw everything together in a bowl!

Before we get to coating the dough in the cinnamon sugar, it first needs to be portioned into little bite sized pieces. The easiest way to do this is to either pinch off pieces of dough or use a knife to cut the dough into little cubes.

Try to get the portions of dough to be about ½ a tablespoon in size, but slightly smaller or slightly larger is perfectly fine. Once the dough is divided, roll each portion into a smooth ball between your hands.

Once all the dough portions are prepped, it's time to coat them in the gooey cinnamon sugar! The easiest way to do this is by placing the dough balls in a bowl then pouring in the butter and sprinkling the sugar and cinnamon on top.

Use your hands to toss it all together and coat the dough in all the toppings. Be gentle here so they don't get smooshed together. The dough may get a tiny bit squished in the process, but you can easily roll them back into shape once they're all coated!

how to prevent monkey bread sticking in Bundt pan

Monkey bread is usually baked in a Bundt pan, which means you can't really line the pan with parchment paper. There are a few steps you should take to make sure your monkey bread slides out easily and seamlessly once it's baked:

1. Don't use an intricate pan. There are some really pretty Bundt pans out there, but now is not the time to pull them out! Try to use a relatively simple pan with a moderate amount of nooks and crannies. The monkey bread isn't really going to hold the design of the pan either way. So the simpler the design, the better.
2. Butter the Bundt pan. Be generous! Slather butter on the bottom, middle and up the sides of the pan, making sure you get into every nook. I personally prefer butter because it has always been reliable for me, but you can use whatever works for you to grease the pan.
3. Turn the monkey bread out of the pan while it's still fresh and HOT. When the sugar is warm, it will still be melty, soft, and most importantly, SLIPPERY. Straight from the oven is the ideal time to get the monkey bread out of the pan. If you let it cool and the sugar solidifies, it will really stick onto the pan.

how to serve and store monkey bread

Monkey bread is best served warm and fresh for that perfectly gooey sugar and soft and fluffy bread! But that being said, monkey bread will keep for up to 2 days at room temperature or around 4 days in the fridge. I'd recommend reheating the bread before serving for the best gooey texture - and try to avoid icing until right before serving so it's easier to reheat if needed!

a fun little game to end off this post!

As far as I know, I haven't seen this done before, so I'm going to say I made this game up. (But if someone has done it before, please let me know and I'll update this!)

But I think I invented a new game! If you're making monkey bread for a gathering, wrap one of the dough portions around a piece of chocolate (or something similar), and seal well (to make sure it doesn't spill out while it bakes).

Bake the monkey bread and drizzle over icing as per usual. Then whoever pulls the chocolate filled ball is either the winner or loser (depending on what you decide to make the game about!)

So you could say that whoever gets the chocolate filled bite has to do the dishes, they have to treat everyone to a pizza, or they get to choose who hosts the next get together! You could make up any rule you'd like!

Ok, got that off my chest lol I just think this would be so fun.

check out these other recipes!

• Brown Butter Cinnamon Rolls
• Cinnamon Roll Cookies
• Mini No Bake Cinnamon Roll Cheesecakes
• Chai Spice Maple Cupcakes
• MOIST Maple Cake
• Brown Butter Maple Crumb Cake
• Moist Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Lastly, if you made this or any of my recipes, be sure to leave a comment and review below! I love hearing your thoughts! Also tag me on Instagram @eatsdelightfulblog so I can see what you're making.

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Enjoy!