Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread

May 2, 2016

This Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread is a lemon lovers dream. Every little bite of this luscious lemon bread is coated in a sweet tart lemon sugar.

This Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread is a lemon lovers dream. Every little bite of this luscious lemon bread is coated in a sweet tart lemon sugar. It’s baked until is crispy and caramelize on the outside and sticky and gooey on the inside, then drizzle with a tart lemon glaze.

I’ve teamed up with Red Star Yeast to bring you this irresistible bread recipe. Lemon treat are one of my favorite. So when I was dreaming up what I’d like my husband to make me for my birthday breakfast, my Lemon Pull-Apart Bread came to mind. 

Making Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread

I decided to change it up to an easier to make monkey bread. I made it even easier by making it an overnight monkey bread, so you do all the work the night before and just let it rise in the morning.

Bread dough is so easy to make in the stand mixer, so I almost always use my mixer to mix the dough. If you don’t have a stand mixer, Red Star has step by step instructions for making dough by hand or in a bread machine, as well as videos.

Making Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread

After I made the dough and it had risen, I got my husband and son involved in making the monkey bread. My son would roll the dough pieces into a ball, I dipped them in the butter, and my husband rolled them in the lemon sugar and put them in the bundt pan.

You don’t need a team to make the monkey bread, but it came together really fast with two helpers. If you don’t have helpers, try to remember to use one hand for the butter and one hand for the lemon sugar. For some reason, I always forget mid way through and end up using my right hand for both which is kind of a sticky mess.

This Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread is a lemon lovers dream. Every little bite of this luscious lemon bread is coated in a sweet tart lemon sugar.

You need the zest from 4 large lemons, so you’ll have leftover lemon juice. Here’s a great way to freeze it. 

This recipe technically makes eight servings but my three boys, my husband and I devoured it for breakfast within minutes. We all love something sweet in the morning.

If you have some lemon lovers at your house, I’m sure they’ll devour this fun to make, fun to eat, Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread too.

Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread

Yield: 8 servings

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

Dough

  • 1 1/3 cups milk
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3 1/2 – 4 1/2 cups bread flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) Red Star Active Dry Yeast

Lemon Sugar Coating

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • Finely grated lemon zest from 4 large lemons
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Lemon glaze

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

In microwave safe bowl, heat milk, sugar, salt and butter to 120° to 130°. Stir to dissolve sugar.

Mix 2 cups flour and yeast in stand mixer fitted with a beater blade. Turn machine to low and add the heated liquid mixture. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.

Switch to the dough hook, 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 smooth. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead briefly to form a round ball. Coat a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Place dough in bowl and coat surface of dough with cooking spray. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and rise in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 2 hours.

Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan generously with non stick cooking spray.

Make lemon sugar coating: Mix sugar and lemon zest together in a small bowl. Place melted butter in second bowl. Set aside for the sugar coating.

Punch down the dough and pat into an 8-inch square on a flour surface. Using a bench scraper or knife, cut dough into 64 pieces. (I used a pizza cutter.) With floured hands, 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 lemon sugar mixture, then layer balls in Bundt pan, staggering the dough balls to build layers.

Cover Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight.

Approximately two hours before you want to bake your Monkey Bread, remove it from the refrigerator and let the dough come to room temperature and begin to rise. (It will rise a little in the refrigerator overnight.)

Preheat oven to 350°. Unwrap pan and bake until top is deep brown and 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: whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice in small bowl until smooth. Drizzle glaze over the top and sides of the bread. Serve warm. (I like to put the glaze in a Ziploc and snip off the corner. To drizzle glaze on top.) Serve warm

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Red Star Yeast, but all opinions expressed are always my own.  You can also find Red Star Yeast on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

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This Overnight Lemon Monkey Bread is a lemon lovers dream. Every little bite of this luscious lemon bread is coated in a sweet tart lemon sugar.