[Collegiate Meals] How to Make Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread - the ultimate finger licking, finger picking dessert of all time. Soft balls of dough, coated in a cinnamon sugar crust of sweet goodness. Your uncle Joe can't be accused of taking the large slice of triple decker ultra fudge chocolate cake when you're serving monkey bread. Monkey bread is self service with full service portion control.

That is, if you can resist 1 monkey bread ball.

For the record... Monkey Bread is totally better than fruit cake, but perhaps not as the traditional fruit cake bowling ball. Yeah, that would be messy.

Step 1: Ingredients

2 "tubes" of pizza dough OR biscuits*
1 Stick of Butter
Cinnamon
Sugar

You'll also need a bunt pan OR a bowl and cup that can be placed in the oven. Cinnamon/Sugar should be mixed in a ratio of 1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon per 1 cup of sugar.


*Today, I discovered you can use pizza dough. I accidentally got pizza dough instead of biscuit dough - and I'm quite satisfied with the results.

Step 2: Preparation

Preheat oven to 375
Grease bowl or bunt pan with butter
Melt the remainder in a small bowl

Combine Cinnamon/Sugar in a bowl

Step 3: Balls

Tear off small bits of dough and roll into balls. They don't need to be equal, and they don't need to be perfect. Place balls on a plate.

Once you've rolled all of your dough into dough balls, dip in butter - then dip in cinnamon sugar. It may be useful to go in small batches and be sure to use one hand for "wet" jobs and the other for "dry" tasks. This keeps your hands a little bit cleaner.

As each ball is coated, place in your pan/bowl.

If you're not using a bunt pan - simply place a cup inside a bowl (see image). This makes a pseudo bunt pan in the traditional monkey bread shape.

Step 4: Bake

Before throwing in the oven, drizzle any remaining butter on top of the dough - then sprinkle with remaining cinnamon/sugar. This will make a glaze.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes. Keep a watch on your bread. It will be done when the top starts darkening. The time may vary with the size of the dough balls.

Step 5: Demold and Serve

Once you've removed the monkey bread from the oven - allow to cool until you can keep your hand on the pan/bowl without being burned. Remove your cup (if applicable) and place a plate on top and flip over. Allow gravity to pull your bread down and remove your pan/bowl. If a few balls refuse to drop, fear not - these are victory snacks for the hungry cook.


Monkey bread is best served near napkins. Monkey bread fears large crowds, only because too much monkey bread is almost enough when it comes to feeding hordes of monkey bread loving guests.