Soft, pillowy dough coated in cinnamon sugar, stuffed with chocolate, and drenched in buttery caramel—this homemade recipe for monkey bread is pure indulgence.
Why you’ll love homemade monkey bread
This is the ultimate sweet treat. It’s gooey, sticky, and rich, with layers of soft pull-apart bread. My recipe for monkey bread also has ground cinnamon, melted chocolate, and golden brown, buttery caramel.
Unlike many monkey bread recipes that rely on canned biscuit dough, mine is made from scratch with a simple yeast dough. This will give you a superior texture and flavor. Canned biscuits are fast, but this is a very easy monkey bread recipe and you’ll be glad you made the extra effort to mix your own dough.
There are instructions below for both convection ovens and combi steam ovens. Using a steam oven will cut down your prep time but either method is still the best monkey bread recipe I’ve ever baked.
And if you’re worried about making homemade caramel, don’t be—if you can melt sugar in a pan you’ll be set! I’ll walk you through it so you know exactly what to do.
Ingredients and substitutions for monkey bread
- Yeast: Instant yeast makes this an easy, straightforward dough, but active dried yeast works too.
- Milk: Whole milk gives the best flavor and softness to the dough, though you could use 2%.
- Sugar: Superfine (caster) sugar dissolves easily, but regular granulated sugar works just as well. Some monkey bread recipes use brown sugar but I prefer white in this recipe.
- Butter: Unsalted butter is best so you can control the salt levels. I do not recommend substituting margarine or other fats in this recipe. Butter is a key flavor in monkey bread.
- Eggs: Enriched bread doughs like this benefit from eggs. Eggs make the dough richer and more cake-like as well as adding firmer structure to the finished bake.
- Flour: Bread flour gives better structure to the dough because of its higher protein content, but all-purpose flour works fine if that’s what you have.
- Caramel sauce: Made with sugar, butter, cream, and a little salt. No substitutions recommended here—it’s worth making from scratch and not as difficult as you might think.
- Chocolate: Dark chocolate chips or a chopped bar of good-quality dark chocolate will work best.
- Bundt pan: I use a 10-cup Bundt for this recipe, as the hole in the center of the pan helps the dense monkey bread cook through evenly. You can also use a plain ring pan, or split your monkey bread and make two smaller loaves, each in a rectangular loaf pan.
Variations
- Make it nutty: Add chopped pecans or walnuts between the layers for extra crunch.
- Swap the chocolate: If you prefer, you can use milk chocolate or white chocolate instead of dark.
- Salted caramel twist: Add an extra sprinkle of flaky sea salt over the caramel before serving for a delicious sweet-salty contrast.
- Spiced version: Mix a little nutmeg or cardamom into the cinnamon sugar for extra warmth. Or sub pumpkin spice mixture to make a fall-themed monkey bread.
Step-by-step: how to make my recipe for monkey bread
The full recipe is below in the printable recipe card, but read on for a step by step run-through.
- Make the dough – Mix all the dough ingredients in a stand mixer with a dough hook until smooth and elastic. It should be slightly tacky but not overly sticky.
- First proof – Cover and let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled in size (about an hour) or use your steam oven’s dough proving setting.
- Make caramel sauce – While the dough proves, it’s time to melt sugar in a heavy pan, then whisk in butter, cream, and salt. When you add the butter, cream and salt, the caramel will bubble and spit, and the melted sugar might solidify into lumps. This is all completely normal, and you just need to pop the pan back onto a medium heat and stir until it’s smooth and glossy.
- Assemble the monkey bread
- Mix cinnamon and sugar in a bowl. Melt butter in another bowl.
- Cut the dough into small pieces and dip each in butter, then cinnamon-sugar mixture.
- Layer the cinnamon sugar dough balls in a Bundt pan, sprinkling chocolate between the layers.
- Pour a third of the caramel sauce over the top.
- Final proof and bake
- Convection oven: Let the dough rise again, then bake. The cook time will be around 30-40 minutes.
- Combi steam oven: For this method, you’ll place the pan in a cold oven and set to Combi Steam, letting the oven preheat and the bread do its final proof at the same time.
- Serve – Let the monkey bread sit in the pan for 5-10 mins, then turn it out onto a serving plate, in all its glossy, buttery goodness! Pour over more caramel sauce and serve warm.
Tips for success
- Don’t overheat the milk for the dough – It should be lukewarm, not hot, or you’ll kill the yeast.
- Check your dough texture – The dough should be soft and elastic. Tacky is ok, but you should be able to pinch a bit and stretch it, without your fingers getting stuck. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour.
- Melt the sugar slowly – When making caramel, keep the heat moderate so the sugar melts evenly. You don’t want to smoke out your kitchen with burnt sugar!
- Use a baking tray under the pan – This catches any caramel drips that might bubble over during baking.
Serving and storage suggestions
Monkey bread is best eaten warm on the day it’s baked, but leftovers can be gently reheated in a microwave or steam oven. Store it in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days. I don’t recommend freezing it, as the texture can become dry.
Extra caramel sauce will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks and makes a fantastic topping for ice cream or pancakes.
Related recipes
If you love this recipe, try these other delicious bread recipes!
Overnight Cinnamon Rolls (Conventional and Steam Oven Methods)
Twisted Cinnamon Bread (Babka) with Honey Syrup
Sticky Chocolate Buns with Chocolate Glaze
Making monkey bread from scratch is so much better than using canned dough, and the addition of caramel and chocolate takes it to another level. Whether you bake this for a special occasion or an indulgent breakfast treat, my recipe for monkey bread is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
Have you made and enjoyed this recipe? I’d love if you’d be kind enough to rate and review it via the stars in the recipe card, and leave a comment below! Ratings and reviews help other readers to find and understand my recipes from a reader’s perspective.
Homemade Monkey Bread with Caramel and Chocolate
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Ingredients
Monkey bread dough
- 2 tsp instant yeast or active dried yeast
- 1½ cups whole milk heated to lukewarm
- ¼ cup superfine sugar caster sugar
- 5 tbs unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 2 eggs large, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 cups white bread flour use all-purpose if you don't have bread flour
Caramel sauce
- 1 cup superfine sugar caster sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick, cubed
- 1/3 cup pouring cream single cream
- 3/4 tsp salt
To assemble
- ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick, melted and cooled
- 1 cup superfine sugar caster sugar
- 1 tbs ground cinnamon
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips or a block, chopped into pea-sized pieces
Instructions
Make the dough
- Put all of the dough ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, and mix on low speed until a smooth and elastic dough forms, about 7-8 minutes. The dough will be a little tacky but you should be able to touch it and stretch it a little without it sticking to your fingers. If it's too wet, add up to an extra 1/3 cup flour.2 tsp instant yeast, 1½ cups whole milk, ¼ cup superfine sugar, 5 tbs unsalted butter, 2 eggs, 1 tsp salt, 5 cups white bread flour
Benchtop – first proof
- Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm place to double in size. The time taken will depend on the temperature of your room; at a very warm room temp around 80°F/27°C, it'll take about 45 minutes to an hour. If your space is colder, it'll need longer.
(Alternative) Combi Steam Oven – first proof
- Put the bowl of dough into your steam oven and turn on the dough proving setting to 100⁰F/38⁰C (100% humidity). If you don’t have a dough proving setting, use the steam setting at the same temperature. Prove the dough until it's roughly doubled in size, about 30-45 minutes.
Make caramel sauce
- While the dough is proving, make the caramel sauce. Put the sugar in a heavy pan over medium high heat and let it melt. Swirl the pan occasionally to stop the sugar at the bottom burning before the top melts.1 cup superfine sugar
- Remove the pan from the heat as soon as all the sugar granules have melted and the liquid in the pan is a warm golden brown, and immediately add the butter, cream and salt. The caramel will spit and bubble up when you do this, which is normal. Be careful not to have your hands or face directly over the pan at this point, to avoid steam burns! Return the pan to the heat and reduce to medium. Stir until the caramel becomes a shiny, smooth sauce, then remove from heat and set aside.½ cup unsalted butter, 1/3 cup pouring cream, 3/4 tsp salt
Assemble the monkey bread
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and have your melted butter ready in another bowl. Have a Bundt or ring pan ready (no need to grease this).½ cup unsalted butter, 1 cup superfine sugar, 1 tbs ground cinnamon
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently press it down to knock out any large air bubbles. Use a knife or a dough scraper to cut the dough into little pieces, each about the size of a ping pong ball. They don't need to be perfectly even, nor round. You should end up with about 60 pieces.
- Dip each piece of dough quickly into the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon sugar. Drop the pieces randomly into your Bundt pan as you go, and once you’ve got a layer on the bottom, sprinkle about a third of the chocolate over the dough. Repeat with more dough and more chocolate until you've used everything up. I like to try and poke all the chocolate under the dough, so it doesn't leak and burn later when you bake the monkey bread.1 cup dark chocolate chips
- Pour about a third of your caramel sauce over the dough in the pan, and set the pan inside a baking tray to catch any spillover in the oven. Set the remaining caramel sauce aside for serving.
Convection oven – final proof and bake
- Set the assembled monkey bread aside in a warm place until it's puffed up by a quarter to a third of its volume, then preheat your oven to 350⁰F/180⁰C. When the oven is hot, put the pan and tray into the oven and bake until the bread is risen, deep golden brown and cooked through, about 30-35 minutes.
(Alternative) Combi steam oven – final proof and bake
- Put the pan and tray into your cold oven and set it to Combi Steam, 350⁰F/180⁰C, 50% (medium) humidity. You don’t need to preheat, as the bread will rise while the oven heats. This removes the need for a second prove. Cook your monkey bread for a total of 30-40 minutes (including the preheating time), until the loaf is golden and puffy.
Serve
- Leave the cooked monkey bread in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Top with as much of the remaining caramel sauce as you dare and serve it warm.
- Monkey bread is best eaten on the day of baking, but can be gently reheated on the second day.
Notes
- This is not a recipe for the faint of heart – it is laden with butter, sugar and chocolate! I don’t recommend any substitutions to ‘lighten’ it; monkey bread is what it is, a very sweet treat.
- Monkey bread will keep, covered, at room temperature for a day or two (or in the fridge if you live in a hot climate). It’s best served warm, and can be reheated gently using your microwave or a steam oven. I don’t recommend freezing the leftovers as the bread tends to dry out on thawing.
- Any leftover caramel sauce will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge and makes a great ice cream topping.
Nutrition
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