Making homemade monkey bread from scratch is quick with this easy recipe! No cans and no yeast needed!
I love monkey bread, but I don’t love bread dough from a can. After many attempts, I finally managed to nail down a homemade monkey bread that is made entirely from scratch – no tubes or cans! This is easy and the kids love to help make it.
I really enjoy a good monkey bread, but I rarely have a tube of biscuits in the house. Ā Finding a quick and easyĀ homemade monkey bread was on my “to make” list for years.Ā The problem I ran into was that most of the homemade monkey bread recipes I found required yeast and needed time to rise. Ā I wanted a recipe that was as quick and easy as using tubed biscuit dough.Ā After many failed attempts, I finally got it right!
This recipe does call for buttermilk, which is almost as rare in my fridge as a tube of biscuits! So instead I usually use yogurt instead of buttermilk.Ā Just thin it out a bit by adding some milk.Ā I use about a cup of vanilla yogurt and add a 1/4 cup of milk to thin it a tad and works great! You could probably also use sour cream or Greek yogurt. Ā I use a Bundt pan for my monkey bread unless I’m making it into muffins.
Homemade Monkey Bread from Scratch
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
- 1 1/4 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- In a small pan melt together 1 1/2 cups brown sugar and 3/4 cup butter, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir well and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and soda, and salt.
- Cut in 3/4 cup butter to the flour mixture.
- Add buttermilk and stir. Knead mixture to work in all flour and make a dough.
- Put half the butter/brown sugar mixture in your pot in the bottom of a Bundt pan.
- Divide dough in half.
- Tear off 1 inch chunks of half the dough and roll in to balls. Place the balls in a layer in your pan.
- Cover layer with half the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture and 1/2 of the rest of the butter/brown sugar mixture.
- Use the rest of the dough to make another layer of dough balls on top of the bottom layer.
- Cover the top layer with the rest of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture and the rest of the butter/brown sugar mixture.
- Bake at 350 degrees for around 25-30 minutes.
- Allow bread to cool for about 1 minute and then invert on to a serving platter.
Thanks for posting the recipe, google gave me your page!
Just wanted to mention that a 1 for 1 substitute for buttermilk is “soured milk” which you make by 1 cup of milk and 1 tsp of white vinegar or lemon juice allowed to set at room temperature to curdle slightly. I do this when I am starting a recipe and it’s usually ready by the time I’m on the “add buttermilk” step.
Another alternative acid would be yogurt whey (the liquid drained out when you make homemade yogurt.)
I believe itās a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice and enough milk to equal a cup.
Thank you so much for this quick recipe. instead of cooking the brown sugar and butter I just rolled my dough balls in the butter and then the brown sugar cinnamon mixture. To make it quicker I cooked three dough balls in each muffin tin. Cooked in the muffin pan at 350 it took 10 min. I had some leftover Wilton’s almond crisco frosting which was good too. these ended up like Hardee’s cinnamon raisin buns very yummy thank you.
Wow~!! This is delish!! I used some sorghum flour in the mix and used plain yogurt/milk/apple cider vinegar in place of buttermilk. Soo good.
Thank you!!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Kelly! Love the recipe adaptations, too!
nice recipe. do you not need to let the dough rise before baking?
Thank you for this recipe! My oldest son requested monkey bread for breakfast, but I didn’t want to make yeast bread and also didn’t want to use canned biscuits. My kids are all happily eating it right now! The texture is softer than I expected but possibly because I used melted butter – the dough was stiff enough to roll into balls, but I’m sure the melted butter affected the texture. Worth it though for the ease of making it. I also used a mixture of sour cream and milk in place of buttermilk.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Yay! I’m so glad they loved it! I was so happy to finally have a quick monkey bread recipe without the cans!
I want to try this recipe as it sounds great and doesn’t call for canned biscuits! we live overseas and want a special treat for Christmas that reminds us of home. however, we don’t have an oven. Have you ever tried to cook it in a crock pot?
Hi Alexis! I have not tried it in a slow cooker, but I have made dinner rolls in a slow cooker and it works great! I do usually brown the rolls in the oven so this just may not get as crunchy and browned in the slow cooker, but they still taste the same. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out.
Thank you for the recipe. It was very good but it was more cake- like than bread. Tasted like a donut, which is never bad. the only think is that the butter/br. sugar mixture was a bit grainy and didn’t melt over the whole monkey bread. Do you think I just didn’t cook it long enough in the pan after the brown sugar and butter melted together? I will keep this recipe. It was yummy!!
Hi Amy! Interesting – I always get more of biscuit texture with it. I would let the sugar and butter melt more over the heat if it was grainy. My problem is usually that I don’t have enough of the mix!
This looks great, Camille. My family is going to love it. I am so glad you came up with a no-yeast version. I never have time to get the yeast kind right. Looking forward to making this soon.
It’s quick and easy! I play around with the topping. Sometimes I triple the amount just to make sure it’s super gooey!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! It’s become a family favorite! I mixed the milk with danactive vanilla and it worked out great.
Thank you sooo much for this!! I have just put my first attempt into the oven, and I have high hopes! š
I hope it turned out for you! I love this recipe!
G’day! Monkey Bread brings back MANY wonderful childhood memories! Thanks!
Cheers! Joanne
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I am excited to try this one. I have all the ingredient in my pantry except the buttermilk. When I get that I will try it out! Looks great!
Enjoy! You can make buttermilk — just put 1 teaspoon vinegar in to 1 cup milk and let it sit for 5 minutes. It sours the milk right up. You could also use plain yogurt (or vanilla!) or even sour cream. š
That looks SO good! I’m on a cinnamon kick right now, I’ll have to make some!
It was amazing! I’m so happy I finally found a homemade version that’s quick. I’m on a pineapple kick right now! š