I love Overnight Monkey Bread. It’s like getting just the best part of a cinnamon roll, the ooey, gooey middle in every bite.
You might have also heard Monkey Bread called Bubble Bread or Pull Apart Bread-same thing different name! This makes a great food for holidays because you can prep it the night before. Perfect for Christmas morning or Easter.
Overnight Monkey Bread
Monkey bread, also known as pull-apart bread, is a sweet, sticky, and gooey pastry that is often served as a dessert or breakfast treat. It consists of small balls of dough, which are coated in a mixture of melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon, then baked in a bundt.
The dough balls are typically made from a yeast-based dough, but recipes can also use refrigerated biscuit dough or homemade dough without yeast. We opted for a homemade version of dough for this overnight recipe.
Get it ready in the evening, let it rest in the fridge overnight, and then bake it in the morning. The prep time in the morning is short and you’ll have a real treat for breakfast. We make this for birthdays and holidays often.
Ingredients
- Butter
- Milk
- Sugar
- Salt
- Active dry yeast
- All-purpose flour plus
- Light brown sugar
- Cinnamon
- Confectioners’ sugar
Recipe Instructions
- Whip up the simple dough and let it rest for about an hour.
- Cut the dough into small pieces and dip them in butter and then roll the buttered pieces in cinnamon and sugar. Place the coated dough balls in a bundt pan. Repeat with all the dough.
- Wrap up the pan and place it in the fridge overnight.
- In the morning let the dough rest for about an hour at room temperature (or while the oven preheats).
- Bake up your monkey bread.
- Mix up a little frosting drizzle.
- When the monkey bread comes out of the oven flip it out onto a platter and drizzle it with the frosting.
- Serve hot and enjoy.
Frequently Asked Questions
You eat monkey bread by pulling off chunks with your fingers and eating it. It is loosely tied to the way monkeys groom each other. Kind of weird, but it’s so delicious you won’t think twice about it.
Monkey Bread is also known as Bubble bread, bubble loaf, sticky bread or pull-apart bread.
This is a loaded question because my monkey bread is always devoured within minutes. However, it will stay fresh in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
If you don’t have a bundt pan that you can use for Monkey Bread, you can bake it in a tube pan or 2 loaf pan as well.
More Recipes
- Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread
- Overnight Pumpkin Monkey Bread with Maple Icing
- Overnight Apple Fritter Monkey Bread
- Easy Pizza Monkey Bread
If you’ve tried this Overnight Monkey Bread or any other recipe on Barbara Bakes, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some pictures of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories.
Overnight Monkey Bread
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup milk warm (about 120 degrees)
- ⅓ cup water warm (about 120 degrees)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons table salt
- 2 ½ teaspoons 1 package active dry yeast
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour plus extra for work surface*
Brown Sugar Coating
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 stick, melted
Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Butter a 12-cup Bundt pan generously with softened butter. Set aside.
- In large measuring cup, mix together melted butter, milk, water, sugar, and salt. Stir to dissolve.
- Mix 2 ½ cups flour and yeast in stand mixer fitted with a beater blade. Turn machine to low and slowly add the milk mixture. After the liquids are incorporated, switch to the dough hook, increase the speed to medium and gradually add the remaining flour (add more or less as necessary*) until dough clings to the hook and almost cleans the sides. Knead until the dough is shiny and smooth, 6 to 7 minutes. You want the dough to be slightly sticky.
- Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball. Coat large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Place dough in bowl and coat surface of dough with cooking spray. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm, draft free place until dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes.
- While dough is rising, mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in bowl. Place melted butter in second bowl. Set aside for the sugar coating.
- Remove dough from bowl, and pat into rough 8-inch square. Using bench scraper or knife, cut dough into 64 pieces.
- Roll each dough piece into a ball. Working one at a time, dip balls in melted butter, allowing excess butter to drip back into bowl. Roll in brown sugar mixture, then layer balls in Bundt pan, staggering seams where dough balls meet as you build layers.
- Cover Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight.
- Approximately one hour before you want to bake your Monkey Bread, remove it from the refrigerator and let the dough come to room temperature and the dough will begin to rise. (It should have risen some in the refrigerator overnight.)
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap pan and bake until top is deep brown and caramel begins to bubble around edges, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on platter and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
- For the glaze: While bread cools, whisk confectioners' sugar and milk in small bowl until lumps are gone. Using whisk, drizzle glaze over warm monkey bread, letting it run over top and sides of bread. Serve warm.
Nutrition
Overnight Monkey Bread is a recipe that you are going to make over and over again. It is quick, easy and tastes yummy.
Melva
Hi Barbara…..I’ve been baking this bread for the past two years…the flavour and presentation are beautiful.
I’m trying to fine-tune it as the inner rolls are too doughy even after max. baking. I’ve switched to a larger pan and less brown sugar mixture so there wouldn’t be as much sauce generated.
If you can make any other suggestion, I’d appreciate it. ( maybe I should spread the brown sugar mixture on the rolls halfway through the baking process?)
Thanks!
Melva
Barbara Schieving
Hi Melva – so glad you love the monkey bread so much that you want to get it just right. What kind of a pan are you baking it in? The bundt pan helps to cook the monkey bread from the inside out as well as the outside in. Have you tried just cooking it longer in the bundt pan? Or maybe not filling your bundt pan as full and baking the rest in a loaf pan?
Melva
Hi Barbara…..my monkey bread turned out beautifully this morning. I used a larger pan and also baked it a bit longer. Thanks for your advice….Season’s Greetings!
Angie
This was amazing! I used my dough setting on my bread machine to make the dough (took out before 2nd rise) and it worked perfectly! I made today for my husband’s coworkers but will make again soon Just for my family =) Thanks for a great recipe!
Katelyn
My husband loves this Monkey Bread! I add chopped pecans though.
Jackie
Hi Barbara,
I made monkey bread last night/this morning and just wanted to let you know how it turned out! I used my bread machine to make the dough, I added 3 1/4 cups at first, but when it was done rising (There were still twenty minutes left in the cycle and it was overproofed) it was apparent there wasn’t enough flour because the dough was still too sticky. There, I kneaded in some more flour, perhaps I used about 3 3/4 cup in total. Then I split the dough into twelve sections, and split each section into six pieces. I used three pieces per muffin tin. I only had a twelve cup tin on hand, so with the leftovers I made mini muffins (24 of them, I needed to make more sugar/cinnamon mixture) and baked the mini ones immediately after they were done rising and let the regular sized ones sit overnight. I baked the mini ones for 11 minutes at 325, the regular ones for 17 minutes at 325. I liked how the butter seemed to seep into the dough overnight, making the dough very tender. Thank you for posting this tutorial and the recipe, even though I think I already have it in my Americas Test Kitchen cookbook! Thanks again! One final note, my regular sized ones rised barely up the top, next time I would put four pieces in each tin.
Barbara
Hi Jackie! Thanks for the follow up comment and the great details on how you made your mini monkey breads. I’ll definitely put minis on my list to make soon.
Jackie
Hi,
Could you make these in muffin cups? How long would you bake them for? I don’t have a bundt pan and monkey bread doesn’t work well in a tube pan with a removable bottom (I’ve tried).
Barbara
Hi Jackie – yes you can bake them in muffin cups. Here’s a similar recipe using a frozen dough that shows you the step by step instructions. I’ll have to give it a try sometime too. http://www.rhodesbread.com/blog/blog/sweet-mini-monkey-rolls-x-2
Donna
I live in San Antonio, Tx. Usually humid. Depending on humidity would you add more or less flour for more humid climate? The recipe look delicious. Anxious to try it.
Barbara
Hi Donna – sorry I’m so slow getting back to you. I’ve been out of town and missed your comment. In my dry climate the flour really sucks up the water. So I would think you would need more flour in a humid climate. Hope you love it as much as we do!
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust
Yum, I’ve never made it from scratch before, but you make it sound easy. I’ll have to try it sometime (to the delight of my daughter).
Kerry
Oh my god, I’ve got the monkey bread in the oven right now and it looks gorgeous and smells AMAZING! Thanks so much for the recipe!! (by the way, I also used quite a bit more flour than you called for). Can’t wait to try it!!!
Barbara
Merry Christmas! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. Now I wish I had this baking in my oven too. It tastes as amazing as it smells. How much extra flour do you think you added, I’ll update the recipe for others. Thanks!
Desi
Good morning…this is my first visit to your blog. I was looking for monkey bread recipe which allows it to rest overnight and landed here. I was wondering if you can substitute frozen dough (buttermilk biscuit) for making the dough from scratch. Is the process the same thereafter? Thank you so much!
Barbara
Hi Desi – welcome to my site. You could substitute frozen bread or roll dough in this recipe. Thaw the dough and let it rise and then cut it in to pieces and roll in the sugar mixture. Biscuit dough generally doesn’t have yeast it in so you wouldn’t have the same result.
Ashley
Do you think it would work if I put dough in a bread machine on the dough cycle? I do not own a stand mixer but LOVE my bread machine. Think I’ll try it and let you know! 🙂
Barbara
Hi Ashley – Yes, it should work fine. I don’t have a bread machine and don’t know how you judge if it needs more flour – that would be my only concern. Others have had to add as much as a cup of extra flour – I live in a dry climate and our flour really soaks up the moisture.
You could also make it in the morning and not bother chilling it overnight if you don’t mind getting up early or eating a bit late. I hope you enjoy it! I’d love to know how it went.
slim dream
so yummy >.< wow great recipe thanks.
Lauren R.
This looks really great, I can’t wait to try it! If I wanted to make your mom’s version with the nuts, can you advise on what to do differently?
Barbara
Thanks! If you’d like to try my version with nuts, just add about 1/2 cup chopped nuts to the brown sugar mixture. If you’d like to try my mom’s frozen dough version I think it was similar to this one http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/quick-and-easy-monkey-bread/Detail.aspx. Thanks for stopping by!
Aimee Flitryss
I love that you kept the tradition going.
This looks delicious!
Lauren
The bread is great but I needed to add almost an extra cup of flour. The dough was very very sticky and not dry enough to handle until the extra flour was added.
Barbara
I’m so glad you enjoyed the bread! I live in a dry climate, so that could account for the difference. It is one of the reasons I like bread recipes made this way instead of adding all the flour at first because every time you make a bread it will require a different amount of flour depending on the type of flour you use and the humidity in the air that day.
Thanks for commenting and letting me know you made it!