Easy Monkey Bread With Butterscotch Pudding Recipe

If you've never had the pleasure of enjoying a warm, gooey serving of homemade monkey bread before, well, you are certainly in for a sweet treat. Monkey bread is a sugary snack, dessert, or brunch side that you and your family will absolutely love digging into. There's nothing more satisfying than pulling off a large piece, plus, it basically melts in your mouth. (Yes — it's that good.) 

Although the specific origins of monkey bread are unknown, the practice of making rolls with butter, sugar, and cinnamon has been in place for centuries. According to ifood.tv, Middle Eastern cooks shared their rolls with travelers and explorers alike, who then spread the tradition of buttery sweet cinnamon bread around the world. And let's be thankful that they did!

This particular monkey bread recipe is brought to you by recipe developer Jessica Morone of Jess Loves Baking. Morone loves this recipe for its nostalgia factor: "Monkey bread was one of the few things my mother was really good at baking, so she would make it for us sometimes when I was growing up, so this recipe reminds me of her and my childhood." How sweet! Read on to see how you can make this gem in your own kitchen.

Before you begin making this delicious treat, you will need to gather all of your ingredients. This recipe requires two (16.3-ounce) cans of refrigerated biscuit dough, ¼ cup of granulated sugar, one (1-ounce) package of Jell-O Instant Butterscotch Pudding, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar, and ¾ cup of butter or margarine (melted).

As far as the pudding mix is concerned, Monroe says that other flavors will work as well, but butterscotch is particularly tasty. She suggests lemon as an alternative for a lemon monkey bread, or even ½ cup of granulated sugar for a "more standard" monkey bread.

Now that you have your ingredients ready to go, you'll need to prepare your biscuit dough. This is also a good time to preheat your oven to 350 F, and grease a 12-cup bundt pan or tube pan.

In this step, you will remove the dough from the package, and cut each pre-formed biscuit into four pieces. You don't need to be too picky with the shape here — just make sure all the pieces are relatively even in size. These pieces will be assembled later in the pan to make up the pull-apart bits of the monkey bread and make for a cleaner rip than simply preparing a singular loaf or cake. Plus, the buttery aspect of the biscuits helps the bread achieve its rich flavor.

Next, combine the granulated sugar, butterscotch pudding mix, and ground cinnamon in a small bowl. To be clear, you are only putting the dry packet of butterscotch pudding mix into the bowl. (You won't be adding any of the wet ingredients listed on the box.)

Once you've evenly combined your dry ingredients, place the biscuit dough pieces into a large bowl, and pour the dry mixture on top. Use a spoon to mix the biscuit dough and dry mixture together, making sure all the biscuit dough pieces are covered with butterscotch mix.

Next, it is time to assemble to dough pieces in the greased 12-cup bundt pan or tube pan. Monroe says there is "no special way to arrange [the dough pieces]," although you will want to keep them relatively level. Keep in mind that what you see when you are done placing dough in the pan will be the bottom of the cake, so if it is a little wonky or has clumps of dough poking out (rather than a flat bottom), your monkey bread might not sit right.

Before you can bake your monkey bread, you will need to prepare the wet ingredients, which will help give the cake moisture. To do this, combine the melted butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Whisk the butter and sugar together until well combined.

Once everything is combined, pour the mixture over the biscuit pieces in the bundt pan. Make sure to move the bowl around to different areas while you are pouring to ensure an even coating in different parts of the pan.

Finally, all that's left to do is bake your creation. Bake the monkey bread for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden in color. Once you pull out the bread, let it rest in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip it out onto a plate for serving. And voila! You have delicious, sticky, sweet butterscotch monkey bread. 

For serving suggestions, Monroe says this is truly a round-the-clock food, and that "it's great for either breakfast or dessert." This also makes a great dish for entertaining, as your guests will love the activity of pulling off pieces.