Homemade Monkey Bread Recipe (No Yeast!)
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An easy homemade Monkey Bread recipe with no rising or yeast required. You’re going to love this classic favorite, remade entirely from scratch!
Homemade Monkey Bread
I am guessing you’re no stranger to monkey bread.
If you’re lucky, your childhood was like mine and you spent many mornings cutting up pre-made biscuit dough, rolling it through cinnamon and sugar, and all-but drooling in front of the oven while it baked. Let’s not forget the scalding burns from dripping hot oozing caramel sauce all over yourself because you just can’t wait another second for that first bite.
As much as I campaign for from-scratch recipes, I really can’t knock the original Pillsbury monkey bread version. Not too much, anyway. It’s genius, quick, easy, and it just tastes like nostalgia. But… if I’m being honest, nostalgia doesn’t always taste quite as good as from-scratch. And while there’s a time and place for the quick & easy version, you know I’m here to tell you that homemade is the way to go.
A lot of homemade monkey bread versions use yeast to make the dough, but considering the OG Monkey Bread recipe is made with biscuit dough (which does NOT use yeast), that just didn’t seem right to me. Instead, I set about modifying my own popular biscuit recipe to work as the base for this monkey bread.
Much easier than using yeast, and the results did a better job of mimicking the texture and buttery flavor of the original (but, you know, better).
How to Make Monkey Bread from Scratch
- Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl, then use a grater to grate butter into the dry ingredients (alternatively you can use a pastry cutter!). Stir so all butter pieces are evenly distributed through the flour.
- Add milk and stir well
- Stir until dough is cohesive and clings together. Once I’ve worked the majority of the ingredients together with a spoon, the dough is usually a bit dry and shaggy still and I’ve found it’s often easiest to briefly use my hands to work the dough together until it clings together.
- Transfer dough to a lightly flattened surface and flatten to 1/2″ thick. Use a knife to cut into pieces smaller than 1″.
- Roll each square of dough in cinnamon/sugar mixture then layer into a lightly greased bundt pan or tube pan.
- In a saucepan, cook together butter and brown sugar until boiling, then pour over monkey bread pieces. This sauce is like a caramel sauce and it’s going to work its way through our pan and smother every bite of our monkey bread!
- Bake until dough is cooked through, then serve warm!
How Can I Tell if My Monkey Bread is Done Baking?
There’s a lot of dough in your bundt pan, so it can be tricky knowing for sure whether all of your monkey bread pieces are cooked all the way through. Personally I like to use a long wooden skewer and pierce through a few pieces to the bottom, making sure my skewer doesn’t come out doughy.
Since the monkey bread is much too hot to actually remove a piece and test it at this point, it’s sometimes helpful to use the skewer (or a toothpick, or even a knife) to move a few pieces around a bit to check that they don’t seem under-baked or too doughy.
Enjoy!
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Let’s bake together! Check out my how to make Monkey Bread video at the bottom of the recipe! If you enjoy watching, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel!
From-Scratch Monkey Bread, No Yeast
Ingredients
- 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
- 1 ¼ cup (295 ml) whole milk
For Rolling
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
Glaze
- 18 Tablespoons salted butter
- 1 cup (225 g) + 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar, firmly packed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease the inside of a bundt pan or tube pan with butter. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour, ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar, 2 Tablespoon cornstarch, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- Use a grater¹ to shred butter over flour mixture and then stir butter pieces into the flour mixture.12 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- Add milk and stir until you have a cohesive dough. Usually I will have to use my hands to work the dough together.1 ¼ cup (295 ml) whole milk
- Transfer dough to a clean, lightly floured surface. Form into a ball and then flatten dough to ½” thick.
- Using a sharp knife and pressing straight down into the dough (don’t “saw” the dough), cut dough into pieces smaller than 1”.
- Prepare cinnamon/sugar mixture by whisking together ½ cup granulated sugar and 2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon. Roll each piece of dough through cinnamon/sugar then layer into prepared bundt pan.½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar, 2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Sprinkle remaining cinnamon/sugar over dough. Set aside and prepare glaze.
GLAZE
- In a small saucepan, combine butter and brown sugar over medium heat and cook until butter is melted. Bring to a boil then remove from heat.18 Tablespoons salted butter, 1 cup (225 g) + 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
- Drizzle butter/sugar glaze evenly over dough.
- Transfer bundt pan to 350F (175C) oven and cook 30 minutes or until dough pieces are cooked through.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes then carefully invert onto serving platter. Enjoy warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I originally published this Monkey Bread recipe 10/19/2015. Since then I have updated the recipe and photos to improve them and have also added a video and notes that I hope are helpful. My original recipe also used a splash of bourbon in the glaze (hence why the url is “drunken monkey bread”). Feel free to add a bit of bourbon (to taste) if you’d like!
This was so delicious! Another excellent recipe!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the recipe, Pam! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Can you put fruit and nuts in the dough ??
Hi, Jasim! Yes, that will be fine. 🙂
Ingenius caramelizing light brown sugar to make the glaze.
I speinkled extra cinnamon sugar on the little doughballs after they were all nestled into the fluted pan.
One typo: you say lightly “flattened” surface instead of “floured.”
Love these!
John’s Signature Cookies,
John, head baker
I am so glad to hear you enjoyed, John! Thank you so much for commenting, and I’ll get that typo fixed, good eye! 🙂
Can this be made a few days ahead of time and rewarmed?
That should be fine, Sally. I recommend storing it in an airtight container so that it keeps its freshness. I hope that you enjoy the monkey bread. 🙂
Another amazing recipe!! Thanks so much for sharing your talent. My family appreciates you.
Thank you so much, Sarah! Such a wonderful comment to wake up to. I appreciate your continued support. I hope that you enjoy! 🙂
Thank you!
Sooooo good! We didn’t have biscuits and my mom is trying to cut out bread and I thought this would be the perfect recipe.<3
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Natalie! 🙂
I was going to make this using biscuits, (that’s the only way I knew how to make it). My husbands face was so disappointed when I told him I was making it with biscuits. So, against my better judgement I attempted to make it from scratch. It was sooo easy to follow and didn’t take long to make at all. I was worried it wouldn’t come out right. But honestly it was perfect. I didn’t have bourbon but this man was about to loose !!!his mind when he tasted it. Thanks for the recipe, it will be in heavy rotation at my house.
YAY!! I am so glad he enjoyed the monkey bread!! It’s SOOO much better from scratch! 😃
This is so good! I just made it to celebrate my sister getting second place in a mountain biking race. I also added around half a mashed banana to the dough. It’s gooey, the dough is fluffy and a little chewy. My sister loved it. Thanks so much!
Would it turn out alright if I were to skip the syrupy stuff?
do you have to add bourbon or is it optional
Totally optional!
I realize this was posted months ago, but I’m curious if I could prepare this the night before and bake in the morning??
I think that would be fine!
Love it! I’ve never had any luck with yeast recipes, so this was right up my alley.
Thank you Sam!
So glad you enjoyed it!
New favorite.
Could I make this in a glass 9×13 pan?
I mean a 9×9 pan, whoops ?
I haven’t tried it this way, but I think if you do not over-fill the pan this will be OK, however you may end up with edges that are crispier and center pieces that are gooier than desired (the difference between this and a 9×13 is that with a 9×13 the balls would be spread out and more likely to cook evenly, whereas with a 9×9 you have less space and the pieces in the middle may not cook all the way). If you do try it this way, I’d love to hear how it works out in case future readers have the same question. Thanks!
Yes, that will be fine but I’m not sure how this will affect the baking time, so just keep an eye on it in the oven. Hope you love it! 🙂
I’ll use a 9×13 pan then. I’m going to make it tonight, and I’ll let you know!! thanks for this recipe!
Thank YOU! 🙂