Sourdough Monkey Bread
This sourdough monkey bread recipe is soft, gooey, and soaked in salted caramel goodness with a hint of maple. Perfect for Easter or Christmas morning, or just a special weekend treat.
Gather the family around and get your fingers sticky by pulling off piece by piece of this deliciously fermented sourdough pull-apart bread.
Related: Sourdough Discard Banana Bread
Related: Sourdough Babka with Chocolate Filling
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What is Sourdough Monkey Bread?
Monkey bread is a sweet bread made by rolling balls of dough into cinnamon sugar, placed in a bundt pan, smothered with caramel sauce, and baked to create a fluffy, pull-apart bread.
Using sourdough for monkey bread makes the dough naturally leavened with a slightly sour flavor that is oh-so-delicious.
Equipment You’ll Need (and Alternatives)
Stand-mixer – this makes life so much easier, but you could also knead by hand.
Large glass or ceramic bowl – for sourdough, you want to ferment in a non-reactive bowl (so not metal).
Bundt pan – you could also use loaf pans which work perfectly fine. You’ll just need to adjust the baking time if they’re smaller than a bundt pan.
Recipe Highlights
- Maple extract – The maple extract used in the dough is SO GOOD. It creates a flavor that sort of tastes like a doughnut, only better. Here’s where I buy my maple extract.
- Easy overnight timeline – Monkey bread is a perfect morning treat and this recipe is so easy to make into an overnight sourdough recipe.
- Salted caramel sauce – My recipe uses a caramel sauce made from pure maple syrup and flakey sea salt. It’s rich, but not too sweet.
How to Make Sourdough Monkey Bread
This naturally leavened brioche sourdough is rolled into balls, coated in cinnamon sugar, drizzled with salted caramel sauce, and baked to perfection. The result is an ooey-gooey pull-apart bread.
Monkey Bread Ingredients
- Active sourdough starter – make sure she’s nice and bubbly for this enriched dough! *tip: enriched dough takes longer to rise so you’ll want a healthy and active starter.
- Organic, unbleached all-purpose flour – Splurge and get the good stuff. You won’t regret it and your body will thank you!
- Filtered Water – it’s important to use filtered water for sourdough since the contaminants in tap water can kill the yeast. We love our Berkey water filter!
- Butter – grass-fed butter is the way to go here.
- Honey – a deliciously, naturally-sweetened dough.
- Maple extract – plz use this if you can. It makes the dough so good! If you can’t get it, use pure vanilla extract. Here’s where I buy my maple extract.
- Sea salt – I love Maldon’s flakey sea salt for all my baked goods.
Cinnamon Sugar Ingredients
- Brown Sugar (or Coconut Sugar) – Either works just fine.
- Cinnamon – this adds a nostalgic flavor to the monkey bread!
Salted Caramel Sauce Ingredients
- Pure maple syrup – get the good stuff – no added sugar, just pure maple syrup.
- Butter
- Heavy cream – we use raw milk cream, but if you want to use a milk replacement, I’ve used coconut cream in this recipe with great success.
- Sea salt
Step by Step Instructions (with photos)
- Make your dough by mixing dough ingredients (minus the salt) in a stand mixer.
- Let dough rest for 15 minutes, then add salt and mix to encorporate.
- Transfer to a bowl and let rise for 6-12 hours.
- Make the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
- Roll dough balls into your cinnamon-sugar mixture and place in the bundt pan.
- Let dough proof for 1-2 hours until puffy and filling pan, or place in the refrigerator overnight, pull out the next day and let rise for 2-4 hours until it fills the pan.
- Make the caramel sauce and pour over the proofed dough.
- Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes.
- Cool for only 10 minutes (no longer) in the bundt pan, then flip out onto a serving platter. Let cool for another 10-20 minutes, then serve.
How to Store Sourdough Pull-Apart Bread
Sourdough pull-apart bread is the best day of but can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
If you’re like us, you spend the next 3 days sneaking into the container, pulling off piece by piece until it’s all gone!
In a Pinch Ideas
- Use a can of biscuits to make the dough.
- Use a smaller pan to cut down on baking time.
Sourdough Monkey Bread Tips
- Longer fermenting time – Since this is a heavily enriched dough, you may notice that it takes longer to rise. Give your monkey bread some time (see baker’s timeline below).
- Grease the pan – to make sure your sourdough monkey bread doesn’t stick to your bundt pan, be sure to grease it very well with butter or coconut oil (getting in all the crevices).
- Cool for a limited time – don’t let the bread sit in the pan too long or the caramel will stick to the pan. 10 minutes is long enough.
- Rest before salt – Salt can kill yeast so you need to give your starter time to activate in your dough prior to adding the salt. You’ll notice a better rise, promise.
Baker’s Timeline (options)
Use this as a rough guide. Times with vary based on the environment in your own home.
Overnight
This will allow you to break bread by 10am.
6am – Feed starter
10am – Make dough
10:30am – Proof dough
4:30pm – Make balls and roll in sugar, place in bundt and store in fridge overnight.
6am – Remove from fridge and final rise
9am – Bake
9:30am- Cool
10:00am – Serve
Same-day
This timeline will be more of a dessert.
6am – Feed starter
10am – Make dough
10:30am – Proof dough
4:30pm – Make balls and roll in sugar, place in bundt
4:45pm – Final rise
6:00pm – Bake
6:30pm- Cool
7:00pm – Serve
How to Make Monkey Bread Healthier
Long-ferment the dough – this will yield a dough with more beneficial, gut-healing bacteria.
Use coconut sugar – for your cinnamon sugar mixture, replace the brown sugar with coconut sugar. It provides the same texture with just as much sweetnes without the refined sugar.
Use maple syrup – my salted caramel recipe already calls for maple syrup, making it naturally sweetened.
Quality ingredients – this is why I recommend organic flour, grass-fed butter, filtered water, etc. It’s not so I can sound pompous – it’s because ingredients matter both for health and taste.
Serving Suggestions
Holiday breakfast – I think Easter or Christmas morning when I think of monkey bread!
Brunch – having a fun brunch with family? Make this sweet, sourdough, pull-apart bread and serve with a nice cup of joe.
Dessert – This is a perfect treat for after dinner. Set the monkey bread in the middle of the table and let everyone’s fingers get sticky!
Sourdough Pull-Apart Bread Types
Toppings
Add these to the bottom of the bundt prior to adding the dough, or mix throughout the balls of dough as you’re placing into the bundt.
Pecans or walnuts
Raisins
Fresh berries
Sauce
Cream cheese frosting – use the frosting recipe from my Sourdough Cinnamon Roll recipe here.
Traditional icing – using powdered sugar.
Lemon icing
No sauce – Sauce isn’t even necessary with the maple flavor from the dough and the cinnamon sugar.
Why is My Monkey Bread Sticking to the Pan?
There are a couple of reasons why your monkey bread is sticking to the pan. See the reasons and troubleshooting tips below.
- Greasing the pan – Often bundt pans are difficult to grease completely. Be thorough and use your fingers to get in all the nooks and cranies.
- Cooling too long – If you’re making a caramel monkey bread, you may be letting it cool too long in the pan before turning out – this makes the caramel stick to the pan making it very difficult to turn the bread out. To avoid this, only cool for about 10 minutes, then turn the bread out onto a platter and let it cool completely on the platter.
Do I have to Use a Bundt Pan for Monkey Bread?
You do not have to use a bundt pan for Monkey Bread. See some different baking options below. Please adjust the baking time to reflect your pan choice.
- Casserole dish
- Loaf pans
- Mini loaf pans
How Do I Know When my Monkey Bread is Done?
If the top of your monkey bread is golden brown, it still may not be done deep down on the bottom of the bundt pan.
You can tell if your monkey bread is done cooking by placing a long toothpick (think wooden skewer) into the dough to see if it comes out clean – if so, it’s done.
If you have a digital thermometer, use that to bake until the inside of the bread reaches 190F.
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Sourdough Monkey Bread
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- To make the dough, mix the flour, starter, melted butter, water, honey, and maple syrup in a stand mixer with a dough whisk for 5 minutes.
- Let the dough rest in the stand mixer for 15 minutes after mixing, then add your sea salt and mix for another 5 minutes.
- Transfer the dough to a greased ceramic or glass bowl (not metal) and let ferment for about 6-12 hours. Dough will have doubled in size when it’s ready.
- To make the cinnamon sugar mixture, place the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and whisk with a fork until combined.
- Take pieces of your dough and roll into a ball about 1-2 inches in diameter (it's not that serious – have fun with it), roll into your cinnamon sugar mixture, then place into a greased bundt pan and cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap.
- Let the rolled dough proof in the bundt pan for at least 2 hours. You’ll know it’s ready for baking if the dough has puffed up and filled your bundt pan (about doubled in size). *If you’re doing the overnight version of this recipe, simply place the bundt pan in the fridge overnight. Remove from the fridge and let proof at room temperature for 2-4 hours prior to baking (takes longer since it’s cold).
- After your final rise, make your salted caramel sauce. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, add the butter and heat on medium heat until it’s melted. Add maple syrup and stir, bringing to a boil.
- Slowly stir in your cream and let simmer until it thickens stirring constantly (3-5 minutes).
- Turn the heat off, add your sea salt, and stir until incorporated.
- Pour caramel sauce over proofed dough.
- Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. *It took mine about 33-35 minutes. Use a wooden skewer to stick into the dough to see if it’s done (should come out clean).
- Cool for only 10 minutes (no longer) in the bundt pan, then flip out onto a serving platter. Let cool for another 10-20 minutes, then serve.
Video
About Me
I hope you love this sourdough monkey bread as much as we do! Please let me know what you think below.
This is awesome! I made it and my family gobbled it up!
Isn’t it delicious?! We absolutely LOVE it. Thanks so much for trying it out. 🙂