comment icon 53 more comments Gooey Monkey Bread. With caramel sauce. Made from scratch. Or not, I guess, if you’d rather not? There’s always those canned biscuits you could use if you’re short on time (been there). Or overwhelmed with life (also been there). Or hangry (do I even need to say?). But guys. Here’s my pitch: I really think you should go for the made-from-scratch version this year. We can handle this! Look at us, being all grown up. Adulting and all that. You will be big-time rewarded with fluffy dough and amazing bread smells for all your hard work. And hard work = 30 seconds of stirring. This brioche dough that we’re using is ultra-pillowy, soft, and luscious. Also: stupidly easy. Remember whose blog you’re reading, okay? Bread Idiot, that’s who. I have zero time for fussy bread recipes. As soon as I have to bust out any type of special equipment – a scale, a thermometer, a Danish dough whisk? First of all, no. Secondly, store-bought bread all the way. I ONLY do homemade bread if it’s completely foolproof. And this one is completely foolproof.
How To Make Our Caramel Monkey Bread:
I could (did) stand in front of that pan of silky caramel sauce with a spoon. A straight-up SPOON. This caramel is not messing around. Before baking (um, caramel overload)… And after. Did you guys know: monkey bread is also called “monkey puzzle bread, sticky bread, Hungarian coffee cake, golden crown, pinch-me cake, and pluck-it cake” and it most commonly refers to “a soft, sweet, sticky pastry served in the United States for breakfast” according to Wiki? Aka what are we even doing in America. Eating buttery bread drenched in caramel sauce for BREAKFAST. For breakfast?! Dear America, I hardcore love us right now. Happy holiday brunching, friends.
More Holiday Brunch Pastries
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of easy dessert recipes. Check it out! 4.8 from 17 reviews
1 cup lukewarm water 1 packet instant yeast (about 2 teaspoons) 2 teaspoons salt 1/4 cup honey or sugar 4 large eggs 3/4 cup butter (melted) 4 1/2 cups flour (more for dusting)
You can also just use canned biscuit dough if you prefer, but I strongly recommend making your dough from scratch! The smells! The pillowy texture! Worth it. For the Caramel Sauce:
1/2 cup butter (I prefer salted) 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 1 1/2 cups brown sugar a hit of sea salt if you like that kinda thing
8pm – mix up the dough 10pm – pop dough in fridge 8am – make sauce and bake!
This batch makes twice the amount of dough you need, so I’d suggest that the remaining dough can be used for round two of monkey bread, or cinnamon rolls, or a tea ring… you name it! The dough doesn’t do great in the fridge for long periods of time (it gets a fermented taste to it), so I’d suggest freezing it. And then you will want to bring the chilled dough back to room temperature before baking. I usually just let it sit on the counter while I make the sauce and that seems to work fine. The sauce will firm up as it cools. To use the last of your sauce on the baked bread, just gently heat it in the saucepan again and it should loosen back up. It does not work to make the sauce ahead and save it. When I did this, the sauce on the monkey bread turned into more of a hard caramel. So make your caramel sauce fresh if you want it to be nice and gooey. This recipe works best if your eggs are at room temperature (if they are too cold, it can affect the rise time for the dough). I usually just stick them in a bowl of warm water to warm them up and then crack them into the dough bowl.
