Monkey Bread with Caramel Sauce

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Monkey Bread with Caramel Sauce is a childhood favorite that has quickly become an heirloom recipe. Made with biscuit dough, sugar, cinnamon and butter, it is a treat for kids of any age.

monkey bread with caramel sauce on cake plate

A Childhood Favorite

Monkey Bread with Caramel Sauce is a delicious favorite in TBH (the buttered home). I learned this recipe from two childhood buddies, Sherry and Keith Helms. I can remember being 8 or 9 years old and watched the two of them make this in their kitchen growing up. It wasn’t long until I had the recipe memorized. I remember it being the very first thing my sweet Momma let me cook by myself in her kitchen.

So, as it stands, I have been making this recipe for almost 40 years. Over the years, I have not strayed too much from the original recipe. I have only enhanced it by adding a few ingredients and special touches. I will tell you two ways to accomplish this delightful recipe, one is just a bit more bougie than the other.

What is it?

I never really knew the answer to this question except for the fact it was probably the best tasting confection I had ever had made with canned biscuits. Now, as an adult, I find this marvelous recipe has been around since the 1940’s. Bakeries in California made it for all of the stars, including Nancy Reagan! Thus traveling from the star studded home straight to the White House.

The funny name really has very little to do with monkeys, the only reference I could find was in this very informative article by Tori Avey. To read this great little bit of history, click HERE. What I have always thought is that is was more or less a finger food, thus the reference to Monkeys and this may be partly true. No matter what you call it, it is just doggone GOOD!

What is in it?

There are 2 ways to pull this one together. You can make the biscuit dough homemade (soooo goooooood!) or simply use canned biscuits. We will reference both below. Otherwise, you only need some staple ingredients found in most home kitchens.

4 cans of 8-10 count biscuits or Doubled batch of homemade biscuit dough (raw) – Canned biscuits are more than fine for this recipe. Like I said above, if you want to add that extra special touch, mix up a double batch of these HOMEMADE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS and flatten them out and cut them into bite size squares instead of using a biscuit cutter.
1 cup granulated sugar – regular sugar is great on this as it helps create a most delightful crust around the biscuit pieces.
1 tablespoon cinnamon – combined with the sugar, what better spice to wrap the biscuit pieces in?
2/3 cup butter – I will say it every time, butter makes everything better!
2/3 cup brown sugar – the brown sugar is for the caramel sauce.Combined with the butter it makes a delicious sticky addition to the delicate pull apart bread.

How to make it.

Whether you use canned biscuits or homemade, the method here is the same. we cut the biscuits into 1 inch or bite size squares. We also use a bundt pan for ours but a regular tube cake pan would work too. I have also seen folks use two loaf pans to split the recipe for two.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut your raw biscuits into 1 inch pieces, or close to it to get them all the same size. In a medium bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon and mix well. Roll Each biscuit nugget in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place in a greased bundt pan. Taking care to make sure the layer is even and the bottom of the pan is covered. Sprinkle any remaining cinnamon and sugar over the top. Tap the pan gently on the counter to distribute sugar mixture throughout.
In a small boiler, combine butter and brown sugar. Bring to a boil over medium to high heat. Lower heat to simmer and allow to simmer for about one minute. Remove from heat and pour over prepared biscuit dough in cake pan.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until it has risen and is golden brown. Cool in pan and turn out on to cake plate. Slice or pick apart and serve! Enjoy!

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Tips and Tricks

Can I add Nuts?

Yes! Nuts are a great addition to this recipe. I would simply add them in when making the caramel sauce. Add them after the one minute boil is done and gently stir them in. Pour over bread as normal.

What if my bread sticks in the pan?

Make sure you coat the pan well with non stick spray to avoid this. But you know what? Life happens, eat it anyway. Get what you can out of the pan, I am sure the people you are serving it to won’t mind and it will still be fabulous.

What kind of Canned biscuit dough works best?

In all of the years I made this growing up, I always used the canned biscuits that had the little bits of butter in them. It really did make a huge difference. So I would recommend you get the butter tasting biscuits for optimal flavor when using canned biscuit dough.

finished whole monkey bread on white cake plate

Heirloom recipes

I think this recipe is the perfect example of how you can take recipes that have not been passed down from generations and make them heirloom recipes. I know I loved it as a kid and my girls still look forward to it as adults. I believe they have made it as many times as I have.

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