Monkey Bread Without Brown Sugar

Monkey bread is a sweet, gooey bundt cake bread made from balls of dough, rolled in sugar and cinnamon, and covered with butter.

The dough balls are arranged in a bundt pan and covered with layers of walnuts and raisins. Once baked, the monkey bread is inverted on a plate and drizzled with vanilla icing.

Each bite tastes like the sticky delicious center of a cinnamon roll. Monkey bread is served pull-apart style, where everyone can tear off the piece of bread.

Monkey bread with homemade dough is a must-try. You can also use biscuit dough, but I think that my homemade recipe is so much better. If you want to give homemade monkey bread dough a try, keep reading!

Making monkey bread from the scratch just requires a few more ingredients and some extra time. You can make monkey bread dough on those days when you have extra time and really want to play around in the kitchen. 

There are four parts to this monkey bread. It may sound like there are a lot of ingredients, but many are repeated, so let’s get into it!

Homemade Monkey Bread Dough

Homemade dough is a rich type of dough. The rich dough means it is prepared with milk, butter, and eggs. The rich dough is usually used for the best type of baked goods, such as donuts and cinnamon rolls. 

Here are the four parts that you need to make delicious monkey bread:

1. Homemade dough – This is made with flour, eggs, yeast, sugar, and butter
2. Dough ball coating – Butter, sugar, and cinnamon
3. Sugar sauce – Sugar and butter
4. Vanilla icing – Powdered sugar, vanilla, and water

Tips and Tricks For Homemade Monkey Bread

Make sure you work quickly with the cold dough as it will rise better if it still cool when the pan goes into the oven.

When choosing a bundt pan, make sure you get the one with a 12-cup capacity. The reason why the bundt pan is used is because of its round sides, which are perfect for this recipe.

Monkey bread is not flat or thin and really requires some space, so the bundt pan is brilliant. 

I have used cinnamon to coat the dough, but you can use your own spice blend. I also find a pumpkin pie spice mix is ideal or a mix of ground cardamom and ground nutmeg.

You can also swap the walnuts and raisins with pecans, dried cherries, or cashews – any combo is delicious.

Still, the essential ingredients for the ooey-gooey factor are the butter and sugar that melds the rich dough together. 

Extra Secrets For Amazing Monkey Bread

• Keep the dough chilled as it will be flakier once baked.
• Serve the bread while still warm as the warm bread pulls better. Of course, it is not a mistake if you serve it at room temperature, and at this point, you can even slice it.
• Drizzle the monkey bread dough with vanilla sugar icing; combine ½ cup powdered sugar with ½ tsp vanilla and 2 tbsp water. Drizzle over warm bread.

How To Make Monkey Bread Without Brown Sugar

Step 1

Gather your ingredients.

Make the dough. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and yeast.

Step 2

Heat milk and butter. Once the butter is melted add eggs and whisk. 

Step 3

Pour the milk mixture into the flour and stir until the dough comes together.

Knead the dough in a bowl, until smooth and cover with a damp cloth. Let the dough rise until doubled in size. 

Step 4

Shape the dough into 54-60 balls. 

Make the coating. Combine sugar with cinnamon and divide.  

Step 5

Melt the butter in a sauce pot and place aside to cool down. 

Dip each ball in the butter and coat with the cinnamon mixture. Reserve any remaining sugar and combine it with the divided sugar. 

Pour the remaining butter from the balls into the bundt pan, to coat it. Sprinkle over the reserved sugar-cinnamon mix.

Add 2 tbsp raisins and 2 tbsp chopped walnuts. 

Step 6

Arrange the balls in the bundt pan and top with half the remaining sugar. Cover with chopped walnuts and raisins and add the second layer of the dough balls. 

Combine remaining sugar and butter and set over heat to melt. Pour the butter sauce over the dough.

Step 7

Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes. 

Cool for 10 minutes before inverting on a plate. 

Make the icing. Whisk the icing ingredients in a bowl. 

Drizzle the icing over the bread and serve.

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