Perfectly Soft & Gooey Sourdough Monkey Bread

Sourdough Monkey bread is the most heavenly holiday treat! It is incredible soft, full of gooey butter & brown sugar, and topped with a cream cheese glaze. All the flavours you love from a cinnamon bun but in sticky pull apart bread.

If you are looking for the perfect breakfast or brunch treat to serve this holiday season, Sourdough Monkey Bread is perfect! It gives you all the flavours of a warm gooey cinnamon bun but in little full apart buns that make it perfect for sharing and for crowds.

I am not sure why the heck it is called monkey bread but non the less it is delicious!! You start with a simple soft sourdough bun dough. Then, you roll it into little bite sized balls and coat those in brown sugar and cinnamon. They get piled in a pan with pecan or walnuts, then drizzled with a butter and maple syrup glaze. You bake them up and are left with an incredible soft pull apart bread that is sweet and gooey.

Sourdough Monkey Bread can be made in double or even triple batches for entertaining. You can bake it and freeze it before adding the glaze, to simple warm it in the oven and ice whenever you want to serve it. Whether you have made monkey. bread before or want to try it for the first time, this recipe is a MUST!

Tips for Making Perfect Sourdough Monkey Bread

1. Make sure you are using a strong and active sourdough starter that is fed 8-10 hours before making the dough. This will ensure your dough rises and makes beautifully soft monkey bread.
2. When you are rolling the dough balls in the cinnamon and sugar, you want to roll them quite aggressively in the mixture so that it sticks to the balls. You want each dough ball fully coated.
3. This monkey bread is best served warm from the oven as that will keep it nice and gooey. As it cools, the syrup will become firm, simple heat it back up and it will be soft again.

Sourdough Monkey Bread Ingredients

Sourdough Starter– Make sure your sourdough starter is strong and active. Feed a 1:4:4 ratio about 8 hours before using.

Milk– Whole milk or 2% are best.

Butter– Unsalted or salted are fine. I always use salted.

Flour– Unbleached all purpose or bread flour work.

Egg– You just need one egg in the bun dough.

Sugar– Granulated sugar is used in the dough. Do not sub with other sugar.

Brown Sugar– This is essential in giving you that nice caramel taste to the buns.

Maple Syrup- I love this additional for a slightly deeper flavor.

Cinnamon- No explanation needed.

Pecans– You can completely omit these if you don’t want any nuts. You can also sub with walnuts or raisins if you like!

Cream Cheese– Use a brick cream cheese that is softened for a nice thick glaze.

Powdered Sugar– Essential in making the cream cheese glaze.

The Steps

Make The Dough

1. Start by adding the sourdough starter, milk, melted butter, egg and granulated sugar to a bowl. Whisk to combine.
2. Next, add in the flour and salt and mix. You can do this by hand or with a stand mixer using the hook attachment.
3. Once the dough is combined, you want to knead it by hand or with the mixer for 7-8 minutes until super soft and smooth.
4. Shape the dough into a ball, then place back in the bowl and cover with a damp tea towel to let rest for about 4 hours.

Shape the Bread

1. After 4 hours, remove the dough from the bowl and cut it into little bite sized pieces. Roughly 1-1 1/2 inches in size.
2. Take a small bowl and stir together the 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.
3. Now you are going to take all of the little pieces of dough and roll them into the brown sugar cinnamon mixture. You have to press firmly to get the brown sugar to stick and coat all sides.
4. Place these little dough balls into a greased 9×13 baking dish. You can just toss them in sporadically, then layer them on top of each other.
5. Sprinkle the chopped nuts or raisins over the dough balls then cover the pan with plastic wrap.
6. Place the baking dish in the fridge and leave it overnight or for up to 2 days.

Final Rise & Bake

1. On the day you want to bake them, remove the baking dish from the fridge about 3 -4 hours before. Let them rest somewhere warm until nice and fluffy.
2. Then, preheat your oven to 350F and melt together all of the syrup ingredients in a pot of the microwave until smooth.
3. Pour the syrup over the monkey bread, then bake for about 30 minutes or until lightly golden on top.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.
5. While the monkey bread is cooling, stir together all of the glaze ingredients until nice and smooth.
6. Finally, flip the monkey bread out upside down on to a plate or serving dish, then drizzle with the cream cheese glaze. Serve warm and enjoy!

If you give this recipe a try, leave a comment or recipe review below 🙂

Looking for more delicious holiday sourdough recipes to try?

https://cmbarndominium.com/how-to-make-brown-butter-apple-sourdough-coffee-cake/

https://cmbarndominium.com/how-to-make-perfect-cinnamon-sugar-pumpkin-sourdough-bread/

https://cmbarndominium.com/the-best-apple-pie-sourdough-cinnamon-buns/

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