Cinnamon Walnut Monkey Bread is a maple sweet pan of pull-apart biscuits dripping with buttery caramel and toasty nuts. Deliciously easy to make and perfect for make-ahead and freezing!
CINNAMON WALNUT MONKEY BREAD
This easy Cinnamon Walnut Monkey Bread is so good you will be wishing you made a second pan… Just for yourself. This is our go-to recipe for Christmas morning. We prep a pan of homemade monkey bread the night before and pop it in the oven for an amazing holiday breakfast.
One of the best things about this recipe is that it takes only a few simple ingredients and is a great recipe to let the kids to help prepare! It’s the best monkey bread you’ll ever taste.
If you love amazing pull-apart bread, this recipe’s for you. You might also like my Blueberry Vanilla Monkey Bread.
Ingredients Needed For This Easy Monkey Bread Recipe
You will need six simple ingredients and about 45 minutes to make this tasty sweet treat.!!
- Jumbo size refrigerator biscuits – You’ll need 2 tubes or cans of biscuits. Store brands are fine, or a name brand like Grands biscuits.
- Unsalted butter – we love using unsalted butter – it allows the cook to control the salt!
- Brown Sugar – adds sweetness and maple flavor to compliment the cinnamon. Either light or dark brown sugar are fine.
- Granulated Sugar
- Cinnamon – classic baking spice!
- Walnuts – nuts add texture and flavor to the butter and cinnamon.
Why is it called Monkey Bread?
Monkey Bread is thought to originate from California in the 1940’s. The term “Monkey Bread” refers to a loaf or cake made from yeast dough dipped into butter. It’s called this funny name because it’s considered finger food and you eat it by picking it apart, like a monkey would.
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Pro Tips and Tricks
- Be sure to coat the biscuits with cinnamon sugar in batches or even coverage.
- Stir the butter and brown sugar together right before pouring over the biscuit pieces, it has a tendency to separate.
- You can use 4 tubes of smaller biscuits instead of the jumbo ones, just double stack them in the pan.
- Only let the pan cool 5 minutes before inverting on the serving plate to keep the brown sugar syrup from cooling and hardening in the pan.
How to make Monkey Bread
- To start, preheat the oven to 350 F degrees and grease a 12 cup bundt pan with butter or cooking spray. If you don’t have a bundt pan, a loaf pan or tube pan will work nicely.
- On a clean work surface, open the cans of biscuits and separate them. Set these aside.
- Measure the white sugar and cinnamon into a gallon sized plastic bag and shake to blend. Working in batches of 4, drop the biscuit pieces into the bag and shake to coat each biscuit with the mixture of sugar and cinnamon.
- Place the biscuits standing on their sides in the bottom of the bundt pan. The biscuits should be overlapping each other. Repeat with the remaining biscuits.
5. Sprinkle any remaining cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the biscuits.
6. Rather than cutting the biscuits into small pieces like the traditional recipes, this recipe leaves them whole so they create pull-apart bread slices after baking.
7. Evenly sprinkle the walnuts between and on top of the biscuits.
8. Melt the butter in a medium bowl or large measuring cup in the microwave Add the brown sugar and stir until the brown sugar is full incorporated into the butter. This may take a minute! Alternately, melt the butter over MEDIUM-LOW heat in a small saucepan, then add the brown sugar and stir over the heat until the brown sugar is almost dissolved.
9. Pour the brown sugar mixture over the biscuits so that all the biscuits are coated. The extra mixture will soak into the biscuits as the monkey bread bakes.
10. Place the bundt pan on the middle rack of the oven for 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the edges are crisp. Let the monkey bread cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
11. Invert on a serving platter, and lift off to release.
12. Pull apart the biscuits and serve warm!
Substitutions and Add-Ins
There are so many delicious ways to add luscious flavor to your homemade monkey bread. Here are some of our favorites.
- Sprinkle a cup of raisins or other dried fruit over the top and between biscuit pieces.
- Use pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice instead of the cinnamon.
- Spread each biscuit with a super thin layer of jam (raspberry or apple is super delish) before placing biscuit in the pan.
- Substitute the biscuits for a can of cinnamon roll dough for extra cinnamon goodness.
How To Store Monkey Bread
If you have leftover’s (we never do!) this is the best way to store it. It’s awesome for freezing too, but only if it’s already baked!
- Monkey Bread should be stored in a plastic bag or covered container, at room temperature. The bag or container will keep it soft and minimize moisture loss. To keep it fresh, store it out of direct sunlight.
- You can easily freeze monkey bread after it’s baked. Cut it into pieces and tightly wrap the pieces in plastic and store up to 1 month. Unbaked monkey bread dough cannot be frozen, freezing will render the yeast inactive.
- Avoid putting baked monkey bread in the refrigerator. It will harden as the starch crystallizes at cold temperatures.
More Sweet Bread Recipes You Will Love
- Blueberry Vanilla Monkey Bread
- Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Pull Apart Bread
- Coconut Almond Bread Pudding
- Blueberry Pecan Banana Bread
- Grandma’s Zucchini Bread Recipe
Cinnamon Walnut Monkey Bread
Ingredients
- 16 large refrigerator biscuits 2 tubes, 8 jumbo biscuit size
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat over to 350°F. Grease a 12-cup Bundt pan with butter or cooking spray.
- Open tubes of biscuit dough and separate into 16 pieces. In a gallon size plastic food bag, thoroughly mix the white sugar and cinnamon.
- Working in batches of 4, drop the biscuits into the bag and toss to coat. Place the biscuits standing on the side with overlapping edges into the bundt pan. Repeat with remaining biscuits. Sprinkle any remaining cinnamon sugar over the biscuits in the pan. Place the walnuts between and on top of the biscuits in the pan.
- Melt the butter in a medium bowl. When the butter is completely melted, add the brown sugar and stir until the brown sugar and butter are incorporated. Pour over the biscuits to coat.
- Bake on the middle oven shelf for 40 minutes, until golden brown and crisp on the edges.
- Allow to cool 5 minutes before inverting on a serving platter. Keep inverted for 1 minute before lifting off the pan. Allow carmel to drip from the pan. Serve warm!
Chef Tips
Equipment Used
Nutrition Facts
© Copyright Christine Mello for Must Love Home. We would love for you to share a link to this recipe but please do not copy/paste the recipe instructions to websites or social media. We are happy for you to share a photo with a link back to this website instead.
Hi Danita, thank you for the lovely compliment! At our house, the entire pan of monkey bread is gone in no time! It is a family favorite around here too!! Have a lovely week – Christine
Hi Helen, thank you for the invite and the lovely comments! I am putting your party on my blogs Link Party page and will stop by this week! Wishing you a wonderful week – Christine
Hi Donna, the monkey bread really is amazing! I have to put it away so I don’t pick at it and eat half of the pan myself!! Wishing you a great week ahead – Christine
Looks so good-especially on a cold winter’s morning! Thanks for sharing at Funtastic Friday, Christine.
We make this for breakfast every once in a while and my family loves it! It’s a great recipe! Thanks for sharing! #SmallVictories
This looks delicious. Would love to have you come and share at our party – What’s for Dinner
http://www.lazygastronome.com/whats-for-dinner-sunday-link-up-27/
Hi there Jennifer, this Monkey Bread is really as good as it looks!! It should have a warning label on it – DO NOT EAT THIS ALONE…you may eat half the pan yourself:) Enjoy your week – Hugs, Christine
Kathryn, what a sweet comment! Let me know if you make it…I would love to hear your thoughts! Hugs- Christine
Thank you so much!! I love sharing at your party:) Christine xoxo
Hi Cindy, I am so happy you like it!! Monkey Bread is an addiction of mine so I can’t make it too often:) Thank you and I hope you are having a lovely weekend too! Hugs- Christine
Hi Christine – this looks delicious! I love anything with cinnamon and walnuts. Visiting from Snickerdoodle Sunday and pinning – hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!
This looks simply divine! I need to plan a brunch party just so I can make this 🙂 Because otherwise I will definitely eat the whole pan myself! YUM!
This looks so good! I love cinnamon, and walnuts/pecan, and brown sugar! 😉 Pinned it for later!
Sold! Pinning and tweeting to share. Thank you so much for sharing with us at Snickerdoodle Sunday!