Easy Bubble Bread Recipe (Pull-Apart Monkey Bread)
If there is one thing that must be on the breakfast table come Thanksgiving, it’s this easy bubble bread recipe. Sometimes it’s called monkey bread, though it can be made similarly (like the one below) or differently (with condensed milk and/or biscuit dough).
However you make your bubble bread, this stuff is incredible and honestly so fun to eat. Plus, it’s only four ingredients!
Bubble bread is the perfect bake for my fellow cinnamon-sugar lovers looking for something easy to whip up for a crowd or special occasion. It’s scrumptious fun for adults and kids and something you’ll look forward to year after year.
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WHAT IS BUBBLE BREAD?
The easiest, most delicious creation that I’ eat’ve eaten every year at the holidays since I was a kid.
This easy bubble bread recipe is made by cutting bread dough – homemade or store-bought – into cubes and rolling it in melted butter and cinnamon sugar. You’ll place each piece in a greased bundt pan, leave to rise, and bake!
As it bakes, those little bits of dough grow together and stick, leaving you with a gorgeous ring of cinnamon-y deliciousness that you’ll devour piece by piece. It looks like a 70s creation, but the pull-apart aspect of this cinnamon-sugar bread is part of what makes it so deliciously fun to eat.
How should you serve bubble bread? I invert my bubble bread into a pie plate immediately upon removing it from the oven. The pie plate is the perfect serving plate as it collects any excess buttery cinnamon-sugar drippings.
INGREDIENTS
- Bread Dough: You can make your own, but I often use store-bought for ease. I love the frozen dough from Rhodes and Bridgford!
- Salted Butter: Brings the goo factor and creates a “wet” surface for your cinnamon-sugar to stick to
- Sugar: The sweetness of this dish that makes everything stick together
- Cinnamon: The queen of comfort spices
Does the bubble bread need to cool in the pan before removing it? No! If you let the monkey bread cool in the pan, the sugar will start to harden and make it impossible to remove it cleanly from the bundt mold.
HOW TO MAKE THIS EASY BUBBLE BREAD RECIPE
Grab your bundt pan and grease it thoroughly, making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies. I like to use a paper towel or my hand to ensure every fold and edge is coated.
Make sure your bread dough is thawed before starting—if you’re using frozen dough, set it out at room temperature for at least two hours. You want it soft but still cold so it can be cut and rolled without beginning to rise.
Grab two bowls: melt your butter in one and mix your cinnamon and sugar in the other. Cut your dough into 1-inch pieces, dip each piece in butter, roll in cinnamon sugar, and layer them tightly around the bottom of your greased bundt pan.
Continue layering the dough pieces side by side, moving upward as each layer fills, until the pan is halfway full, and place any extra pieces in a greased loaf pan to rise alongside the bundt. This gives you a mini loaf you can bake after the first pan.
Cover your pan(s) with a towel and let them rise for 60–90 minutes, ideally in a warm spot. The dough should puff by about a third—not quite double—since it will continue rising in the oven.
When your dough looks close to ready, preheat your oven to 350°F and remove the towel. Bake the bundt pan for 35 minutes.
Once baked, place a pie dish or serving plate over the hot bundt pan and invert immediately so the sugar doesn’t cool and cause sticking. Be careful when flipping, as the sugary butter will be very hot.
Let your bubble bread cool for 10–15 minutes, if you can wait that long. Enjoy it warm!
3 reasons you’ll love bubble bread
TIPS & VARIATIONS
- Bubble bread is traditionally made with cinnamon as the only spice but as a new lover of all things cardamom, you could easily swap out some of the cinnamon for cardamom to slightly switch up the spices
- Do not overfill your pan. If you’re using a smaller bundt pan or you want to make a larger batch, don’t fill your pan past the halfway mark, to leave space for the rise. Pop any remainders into a greased smaller baking dish or a loaf pan
- If you have extra butter and cinnamon-sugar left over, I usually toss. It shouldn’t be much but when I’ve tried in the past to just pour it over the rolls it made them a weirdly sticky, hardened mess.
- The bread is best warm but due to the rise time, we often make it the night before and eat it in the morning. Personally, I would recommend getting up early and making it first thing, because what’s better than fresh, warm cinnamon bread?
- Be very careful as you transfer the baked bubble bread to the serving platter. Make sure your bundt pan is completely covered before you flip it so you don’t burn yourself. This is why I prefer to use a pie dish, as you can somewhat squish the bread that has puffed out of the top of the pan, into the dish before flipping, and it will catch all the drippings.
- I recommend immediately rinsing your bundt pan with hot water, to remove any sugar left in the pan. This will make clean up much easier!
MAKING AHEAD & STORING
This easy bubble bread recipe is best served warm, but should really be eaten within the first 24 hours for optimal freshness.
You can store it in an airtight container to keep for 2-3 days, but it won’t be as soft and gooey after the first day and will start to dry out, like most fresh bread. I doubt it will last that long, though!
WANT MORE CINNAMON RECIPES?
- Easy Cinnamon Chip Scones
- Cinnamon Sugar Sweet Potato Pull-Apart Bread
- Cinnamon Roll Brioche Danishes
- Easy Cinnamon Roll Pie
- Cinnamon Olive Oil Cake with Salted Vanilla Glaze
EQUIPMENT YOU’LL NEED
Equipment
- Bundt pan
- Bowls
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- Measuring Spoons
- Pie Dish or Large plate
Ingredients
- 2 loaves bread dough thawed
- ½ cup salted butter melted
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- *Note: If you’re using frozen, pull it out and set it on a plate at room temperature for at least 2 hours before making your bubble bread. It should be soft but should still be cool – you don’t want it warming and proofing in advance
- Grease a 9.5-inch bundt pan
- Cut your bread dough into 1-inch pieces.
- In one bowl, melt your butter and in a separate bowl stir together your sugar and cinnamon
- To assemble, dunk each dough piece into the butter, coating all sides, shake off any excess and then dunk into your cinnamon-sugar mixture until covered. Place along the bottom of your bundt pan. Repeat, moving in a circle around the pan and then starting a new layer, with every piece of dough until all is used
- Cover your pan with a towel and leave to rise for 60-90 minutes in a warm spot. It should puff up by at least a third but not quite double. You don’t want the dough rising too much ahead of baking because it will rise more as it bakes
- Preheat your oven to 350F
- Once risen, remove the towel and place your bundt pan in the oven for 35 minutes
- Remove and immediately place a dish over the top and flip your bubble bread out of the pan. Do this carefully as the pan and the cinnamon-sugary goo will be hot! You want to do this quickly so the sugar won’t harden and make the bubble bread stick in the pan
- Let cool for 10-15 minutes, if you can control yourself that long, and enjoy!
Simple and delicious!!
Happy to hear!!
I’ve made this monkey bread three times now over the course of 3 weeks and each time I forget to take a before picture. But what’s most important is the after math.. always demolished with ppl asking for the recipe. I am no baker and this was so easy to make and delicious! Will be a repeat recipe for future holidays and events
YAY! I’m so happy to hear this!!