What is greater than apples and cinnamon brought together in an amazing baked good? This monkey bread recipe is a great way to enjoy a flavorful apple cinnamon monkey bread on any occasion. 

The delightful aroma of baked apples and cinnamon guarantees that this dish is a great choice when it comes to something sweet. 

This apple monkey bread recipe doesn’t require any advanced baking or cooking skills and is a great choice when you are in a hurry. 

Keep reading to find out how you can surprise your loved ones with a delicious dessert!

Make sure to also check out our Apple Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread recipe.

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What is Monkey Bread?

Monkey bread is a classic festive American dessert, also called bubble-loaf, Christmas pull-apart bread, or sticky cake. 

The recipe has a European background, coming from Hungary at the end of the 19th century. Hungarian immigrants brought this dessert to the American culinary culture when they immigrated to the USA.

Its original name is arany galuska, “the golden dumpling”.

It first appeared in culinary books in the 1950s and was popularized when Nancy Reagan served it on a White House Christmas.

Things You’ll Need for Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread

This monkey bread with apples uses a classic monkey bread dough, nuts, cinnamon, and, of course, apples. 

Here are the ingredients I suggest you use for this cinnamon apple monkey bread:

Ingredients

For the monkey bread dough:

• 4 cups of all-purpose flour (480 grams)
• ½ cup of white granulated sugar (100 grams)
• 1 cup of warm milk (250 grams)
• 3 eggs (room temperature)
• ⅓ cups of melted butter (about 70 grams)
• 1 package of instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons of salt (11 grams)

For the apple cinnamon roll monkey bread:

• Nuts 
• Cinnamon 
• Sugar 
• 2 apples
• ½ cup of brown sugar  (100 grams)
•  ½  cups of melted butter (100 grams)

How to make Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread – Step by Step Guide

This cinnamon monkey bread recipe will come together really quickly if you have all of your ingredients ready. We will split this recipe into 3 parts if you use homemade dough, or 2 parts if you choose to use a pre-made one. 

Firstly, you need to gather your ingredients for the dough. It’s an easy-to-make dough, so don’t worry about it. 

You can use a mixer with a hook that will do all the work for you, or you can knead the dough by hand with a stretch and fold technique. 

1. Warm the milk in the microwave and use room temperature eggs. Cold ingredients will affect the dough’s consistency and texture. We want a soft, delicate batter, so we need to work with care. 
2. Melt the butter. You can do it on the stove, but I find it easier to do it in the microwave. 
3. Pour 1 ½ cups of flour in a large mixing bowl, along with the other dry ingredients (sugar, yeast, salt). Mix the dry ingredients together.
4. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and add the melted butter and milk. (if your eggs are directly from the fridge, this is the best way to make sure that all of your liquid ingredients will have the right temperature).
5. Pour the liquid ingredients over the flour mixture.

It’s time to knead the dough for cinnamon sugar monkey bread.

If you use a mixer with a hook, set it on low and slowly increase the speed during the process. It should take about 20-25 minutes until the ingredients are completely mixed together. 

If you knead the dough by hand, mix the ingredients in the bowl until the flour absorbs all of the liquids. 

6. Add the remaining ½ cup of flour and mix. You will see that this will change significantly the texture of the dough (if you knead the dough by hand, also spread some flour on your working space and hands, and use a stretch-and-fold technique, until the dough has the right texture)
7. After you are done mixing, the dough should have a non-sticky texture. You can test this with a clean finger. If you feel like the dough doesn’t have the right texture, add flour in small quantities and keep mixing (the exact quantity of flour needed depends on the quality of the flour and the rest of the ingredients, so there is nothing wrong if you think that your dough is not ready; keep adding flour until it doesn’t stick to your fingers).
8. After you are pleased with your dough, cover the bowl and let it sit for about 45 minutes at room temperature or in a warm place (don’t put it in the fridge). 

The dough will at least double its size. 

While the dough is rising and resting, it’s time to prepare the ingredients for the next steps of this recipe for apple monkey bread! 

9. Preheat the oven at 350℉ (180℃). Prepare a bundt pan by coating it with cooking spray or grease (butter is a good type of grease to use when baking sweets).
10. Mix cinnamon and sugar in a bowl. Cinnamon is very flavored, so a little goes a long way. You can make the mixture as you like it. Use less cinnamon for sweeter monkey bread, or use more cinnamon for a cinnamon monkey bread.
11. Melt half of the butter in a bowl. You can do this on the stove, or in the microwave (personally, I prefer to do it in the microwave because it’s easier). 
12. Peel 2 apples and cut them into small pieces. Put them in a pan with a little butter on the stove. Let them sit until they soften (this step is required because the apples won’t have enough time in the oven to be cooked). 
13. Mold bite-sized pieces of dough into balls. Dip each ball into the melted butter, then roll them into the sugar and cinnamon mixture. 
14. Place the dough balls into the pan and add nuts and apples.
15. Put the remaining butter into a pan with brown sugar on the stove. Stir the mixture until the butter and sugar melt. Don’t let it sit on the stove for too long, the mixture it’s ready when it starts simmering. 
16. Pour the brown sugar and butter sauce into the bundt pan. 
17. Put the pan into the oven and let it sit for about 45 minutes. If your oven has a fan, I recommend you use it.

Substitution of ingredients

Monkey bread is a simple recipe and that’s the best part of it! You might wonder why I say this. Well, the simplicity of the recipe allows you to change things up every time you bake it. 

Cinnamon monkey bread recipes are easy to make and constitute a delicious dessert ready to be shared with your loved ones. 

You can add different types of nuts or fruits every time. Think about making banana monkey bread or even adding cheeses for monkey bread with cream cheese.

If you want to skip making the dough by yourself, you can always use a pre-made one. Try out an easy monkey bread recipe with 1 can of biscuits by using Pre-made Pillsbury Dough, make a monkey bread recipe with frozen bread dough, monkey bread with crescent rolls, or monkey bread with Rhodes rolls.

For the Pillsbury monkey bread or any of the above, simply skip the dough-making process and jump right to the assembling steps.

For a gluten-free monkey bread, replace the gluten ingredients with gluten-free alternatives. The result will stay the same, but gluten-free. 

For a vegan monkey bread, replace the butter with margarine and milk with any vegan alternative that you like. 

If you want to turn this dessert into a savory snack, a good idea is pizza monkey bread. Imagine if monkey bread and pizza had a child: a pull-apart delicious pizza for a wholesome snack.

Tips on Serving Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread

Monkey bread can be served on any occasion. In fact, it doesn’t have to be a special occasion to bake something this tasty. 

Share this baked good with your friends and family and enjoy it any day. 

You can add powdered sugar on top of it, for a more classy look, or you can sprinkle some nuts.

How to store Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread

Monkey bread is best served warm. It can be stored for about 2-3 days. After that, it loses its flavor and becomes blunt. It’s best to keep it covered to avoid hardening. 

You can reheat it in the microwave or oven at any time.

Recipe Card: Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread