Monkey Bread with Biscuit Dough

Looking for fun, delicious, and easy recipes to inspire you and your kids to get baking in the kitchen? This Monkey Bread with Biscuit Dough Recipe is the most delicious dessert that I’ve had in a long time. It’s much easier than making cinnamon rolls and tastes even better!

Monkey Bread with Biscuit Dough

Why is it called “Monkey Bread”? Because you eat it with your hands! The bite-sized pieces of ooey-gooey baked dough can be dipped in vanilla icing or left plain. Like everyone else, I’m passing the time by cleaning, organizing, and baking. I’m pretty sure we are all going to come out of isolation a few pounds heavier!

I got the inspiration for this recipe from an episode of Kid’s Baking Championship. My kids love watching it with me and it’s been inspiring us to spend more time in the kitchen together. This is an easy recipe that’s perfect for little hands with amateur baking abilities. My boys love cutting the dough into quarters and rolling it into balls. It’s like playing with Play-Doh!

If you’ve been lucky enough to find flour and yeast in this pandemic then you can absolutely make this recipe with homemade dough. You’ll need a sweet dough that includes 5 cups of flour to create the same amount of dough used here, with 3 store-bought biscuit containers. It will save you some money instead of buying the store-bought dough but take a little more time to make. In the interest of making this recipe as easy and cheap as possible, I’ve used no-name biscuit dough.

Monkey Bread Recipe

I’ve divided this recipe into three categories: the dough rolled in butter, cinnamon and sugar; the liquid brown sugar coating; and the icing for dipping. You’ll need about 20-30 minutes to prepare the ingredients and 35-40 minutes for baking. The finished recipe can be kept in an air-tight container on the counter for up to 2 days or in the fridge for 5 days.

Ingredients:

Cake:

3 containers of store-bought, refrigerated, biscuit dough

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Coating:

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Icing:

1 cup icing sugar

3 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease bundt cake pan by spraying with cooking spray or smearing a thin layer of butter using a piece of wax paper.
Open packages of store-bought biscuit dough. Cut rounds into quarters and roll into small balls. Your kids will love helping with this part!
Melt 1/2 cup of butter in the microwave in a small bowl.
Combine 1 cup of sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon into a sealable plastic bag.
Roll each dough ball into the butter. Next, place the ball into the bag of cinnamon sugar coating. Shake it around so that the ball is covered. Place coated dough ball into the bundt pan.
Continue until all dough has been piled into the bundt pan.

Coating:

Melt 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon on the stovetop, in a saucepan on medium heat. Stir ingredients until sauce has thickened. Pour the sauce evenly over the batter in the bundt pan. Most of the topping will sink to the bottom and caramelized during baking.
Place pan on middle rack of oven and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cake balls will appear golden brown on top when finished.
Allow cake to cool after removing from the oven. Flip bundt pan over onto a serving tray or cutting board. It should easily release from the pan.

Icing:

Mix 1 cup icing sugar, 3 tbsp milk, and 1/2 tsp vanilla in a bowl with a wire whisk. Add more milk if needed to create a runny consistency.
Tear pieces of the monkey bread with your fingers and dip into the vanilla icing. Enjoy!