Sourdough monkey bread
Sourdough monkey bread is an easy, pull-apart bread packed with flavor! The warm cinnamon and caramelized sugar make this recipe perfect for a fall brunch.
Why you will love this recipe
- Sourdough money bread is super fun to make! It is also a great recipe to make with children. They love making the little balls and rolling them in the cinnamon sugar.
- Small pieces of sourdough bread covered with a rich, cinnamon caramel.
- This sourdough pull-apart bread is perfect to serve at your next gathering.
Ingredient notes
Sourdough starter: To make sourdough monkey bread, you need an active sourdough starter. If you don’t have one yet, I recommend you check out our guide on how to make a sourdough starter at home.
Flour: For this recipe, you need all-purpose flour. You don’t need fancy flour, but if you want to make your bread extra soft, you can use bread flour instead.
Sugar: To make the cinnamon sugar, you need granulated sugar.
Butter: The butter gives the bread a rich, almost creamy flavor and a silky smooth texture. If you want to make this sourdough bread completely dairy-free and vegan, you can substitute the butter with a plant-based variety.
How to make sourdough monkey bread
On day one, you prepare the dough for the bulk ferment. Bulk fermenting the dough makes it nice and fluffy and adds a sour flavor. On day two, your dough is ready to make small balls.
Roll them in the cinnamon sugar until completely covered so they won’t stick to each other. I like to do this in a large bowl, but you can also add the balls and cinnamon sugar to a ziplock bag and shake it until they are coated with the sugar.
Transfer your balls to your pan and bake the sourdough monkey bread in a preheated oven for 30 minutes.
How to make this recipe with sourdough discard
If you don’t have time to wait for your sourdough starter to become active again, you can use sourdough discard. Just keep in mind that the dough may take a bit longer to bulk ferment. When I use discard for this recipe, I like to start in the morning of day one and let the dough bulk ferment until the next day, when I’m ready to put it in the oven.
Our tips for this recipe
- Remove your sourdough monkey bread from the pan immediately after baking while the caramel is still hot. The sugar hardens as it cools, so if you wait too long, it will be nearly impossible to remove it in one piece. If you forgot and let it cool for too long, you can place it back in a hot oven for a few minutes until the caramel becomes liquid again.
- Feed your starter a few hours before you begin. This will make sure your starter is really active and is ready to bake!
- Always use a kitchen scale when making homemade sourdough monkey bread. While this is a very forgiving recipe, I do recommend learning how to use a kitchen scale. Using grams instead of cups will give you consistent and better results than measuring your ingredients by volume.
Frequently asked questions
You can use any pan or oven dish you have, but I prefer to use a bundt pan. The central hole ensures that your sourdough monkey bread cooks more evenly and creates a fun shape that makes it easy to pull out small pieces of bread.
Absolutely! If you don’t have time to make the bread on the day you need it, you can either cold ferment the dough in the fridge or bake it a day in advance and store it at room temperature.
If your sourdough monkey bread has a gooey center or still tastes like raw dough, you can pop it back into the oven and bake for another 5-10 minutes.
Storage
Sourdough monkey bread stays fresh for about two to three days when stored at room temperature. There is no need to keep it in the fridge, as it will dry much quicker and the caramel will become hard.
This bread can also be frozen. It will last for up to six months in the freezer. Take it out the night before serving it and let it thaw on the counter overnight.
More easy sourdough breakfast recipes
Sourdough monkey bread
Equipment
- 1 bundt pan
Ingredients
For the sourdough monkey bread dough
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter 125 grams
- 4 cup all-purpose flour 500 grams
- 1 cup water 240 ml
- 2/3 cup melted butter 150 grams
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the cinnamon sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar 60 grams
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
Frosting *optional
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F (180 C) and grease your bunt pan.
- Add all the ingredients for the dough to a large bowl and mix until you have a soft, smooth dough. I always use a stand mixer with dough hooks for this step. Kneading the dough takes about 5-10 minutes.
- Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and let it bulk ferment at room temperature for 8-12 hours.
- Cut your dough into small balls.
- Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl and cover the dough balls.
- Place them in a greased bundt pan and bake your sourdough monkey bread for 25-30 minutes.
- Turn your bread out on a plate immediately after baking. This is important because the caramel will firm up once it starts to cool.
This was so good! Will be making again!
Thanks Lex!