Monkey Bread has been around forever, most people remember having it when they were kids. Fond memories of the house filling up with the smell of cinnamon followed by eating a sticky treat with your fingers makes the delicious Monkey Bread a certified comfort food.

There are different variations; our recipe has optional raisins in it while some like their Monkey Bread with nuts. You can add those or make monkey bread in the original classic way, without either. It really tastes fabulous all on it’s own without anything added to it. For a different taste, we also have the Blueberry Monkey Bread recipe.

Kids love this stuff, and being allowed to pull the pieces out themselves makes it all that much more fun. They will get sticky, don’t sweat it! Enjoy every last morsel and keep biscuits on hand for any time you need a home baked treat. The following is a tried and true Monkey Bread recipe, it isn’t grainy like some recipes that are too heavy on the sugars or too light on butter.

The flavors are perfectly blended in a velvety smooth and luxuriously sticky sauce. Some people frost theirs with cream cheese icing, which melts just perfectly onto the bread (the recipe for the icing follows the monkey bread recipe).

While the cinnamon version is thought to be the classic (it’s the one most people grew up with), the claim to fame of Monkey Bread goes back to the early 1970s with a much different recipe.

The Neiman Marcus food consultant and cookbook author Helen Corbitt, worked in their kitchens from 1955 to the mid-1970s. She decided to serve it in the Neiman Marcus Mariposa Room in Houston and highlighted the recipe in a cookbook she published. Her recipe, which does not have cinnamon and involves making the dough with yeast, is below the gooey cinnamon monkey bread recipe. It is for those who want a more subdued flavor.

Monkey Bread

Ingredients:

4 cans refrigerated biscuits (we used Pillsbury because that’s what my mom had written on the recipe card)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins (these are optional, it’s great with or without them)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9-10 inch tube pan.

* Do not use a pan with a removable bottom! The sugar mixture gets extremely hot and can burn hands if it leaks out during handling. I used one that  leaked the tiniest bit while baking. The hot sugar mixture dripped onto my oven’s heating element, causing it to break and ignite the sugar sauce. I’ve used a bundt pan safely and without affecting the finished monkey bread ever since that happened. *

2. Mix white sugar and cinnamon in a medium sized plastic bag. Cut the biscuits into halves or quarters and place six to eight biscuit pieces in the sugar cinnamon mix. Shake well.

3. Arrange pieces in the bottom of the greased pan. Continue layering until all the biscuit pieces are coated and in the pan. If you are using raisins, place them among the biscuit pieces as you are layering.

4. In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the brown sugar over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over the layered biscuits.

5. Bake for 35 minutes. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Pull apart and enjoy!

Icing Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 pound cream cheese
1/2 pound butter
1 pound powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:

1.Allow cream cheese and butter to get to room temperature.

2. Beat butter and cream cheese together in a large bowl with a mixer.

3. Slowly add in the pound of powdered sugar.

4. After all the powdered sugar is added mix for 12 minutes (do not mix less than that).

5. When almost done, add in the extract and lemon juice.

Henry, Maggie, and Josie with the Monkey Bread they made with Daddy!

Neiman Marcus Monkey Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 compressed yeast cakes
1 cup milk
4 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted plus melted butter for dipping
3 1/2 cups flour, sifted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Place milk in heavy bottomed pan on low heat. Stir occasionally until small bubbles appear around the edges of the pan and milk is just hot (do not boil).Remove from heat; let cool slightly.

3. Place yeast and scalded milk in a large bowl. When yeast is dissolved, stir in sugar, salt and butter. Add flour; beat well.

4. Cover and allow dough to rise to almost double (approximately 45 minutes).

5. After dough has risen, turn out onto lightly floured work surface. Punch down and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness.

6. Cut into 2″ diamond shaped pieces. Dip each piece in melted butter.

7. Arrange the pieces in a 4″ pie pan, 4 or 5 overlapping pieces per loaf. Allow to rise for 1/2 hour.

8. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven and brush with more of the melted butter.

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