In this article, you will learn more about the famous American dish known as monkey bread, in a variant that contains delicious granny smith apples.

Not only will you know the best monkey bread with apple recipe, but you will also get to know its history and its impact on American culture and worldwide.

Let’s dive righ in on how to make monkey bread with apples!

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What is Monkey Bread?

The first question that may arise is, what is monkey bread? The answer is very simple, it is an extremely popular sweet bread throughout North America.

The sweet element is not necessarily found in the dough itself but is present in the delicious caramel that covers each of the dough balls.

Common monkey bread came to the United States from Hungarian immigrants in the early 20th century but rose to popularity when it was included on the White House Christmas menu during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

Here I will give you a recipe for monkey bread with apples, which gives it a taste similar to the classic apple pie.

This dish is ideal for you if it is apple season, or if you simply want to eat a delicious breakfast or dessert that combines the most popular flavors of cold days; sweet bread, apples, and cinnamon!

Things You’ll Need for Easy Monkey Bread with Apples Recipe

To make this homemade monkey bread recipe you won’t need any expensive equipment or ingredients, and you probably already have everything you need to make it at home!

The monkey bread ingredients are really easy to find, and you can make a lot of changes and substitutions according to your personal taste or diet.

This easy monkey bread recipe calls for two cans of biscuits, but if you don’t have them or can’t find them at your local store feel free to make an easy Monkey Bread with premade Pillsbury dough, monkey bread with Rhodes rolls, or even a monkey bread recipe is frozen bread dough.

When it comes to the equipment, if you have a bundt pan then that’s perfect! But if you don’t, you still can make this monkey bread recipe using any type of round pan.

Ingredients

• ½ cup (100g) white sugar
• 1 cup (200g) packed light brown sugar
• ¾ cups (170g) unsalted butter (melted)
• 2 cans (16.0z each) of biscuits
• 2 cups (240g) granny smiths apples (peeled and cubed)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg

How to make Monkey Bread with Apples – Step by Step Guide

1. The first step on this easy monkey bread with apple recipe is to preheat the oven at 350°F or 180°C. In the meantime, grease a bundt pan with vegetable oil, butter, or cooking spray. A light grease will do since the caramel will make it really easy to remove from the pan. 
2. After that, grab a medium bowl and mix cinnamon, nutmeg, and white sugar together. You can change the spices or completely remove them, it depends on your personal taste. Feel free to try different seasonal spices such as pumpkin spice or ½ teaspoon of ginger powder. 
3. Then separate the biscuit dough, each can should have 8 dough pieces. Afterward, cut each piece into quarters and coat them in the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Make sure each part of the dough gets coated, this way you’ll have the perfect sticky monkey bread.
4. Up next peel the granny smith apples and cut them into small pieces. You can change the number of apples depending on how much you like them, but 2 cups are the perfect amount.
5. Grab the bundt pan that you greased before and assemble the monkey bread, alternating between dough and apples. You can make layers of dough and cover them with apples, or putting apple cubes in the middle of each dough piece, it is completely up to you! Then let the monkey bread with apple rest for 5 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan melt the butter at low to medium heat, and add the brown sugar. It should take from 2 to 4 minutes, otherwise, the butter might burn. Pour the liquid on top of the monkey bread with apples. You can also do this step entirely in the microwave, just melt the butter in 30 seconds intervals, and when it is melted dissolve the sugar.
7. For this final step on this apple monkey bread recipe cook for 30 minutes in the oven at 350°F or until it is completely cooked. You can insert a toothpick and if it comes out clean then it is ready! Let it cool for 5 minutes and serve warm.

Substitution of ingredients

This is a pretty easy monkey bread with apples recipe, and thankfully it offers the chance of making a lot of substitutions of ingredients, based on your personal preference or diet.

The easiest substitution that you can make is related to the type of apple. You can change the granny smith apples for any of your choices, or you can even completely remove them from your recipe, this way you’ll have a common monkey bread.

With that being said, the granny smiths work better for this recipe, since the other types of apples might get too mushy, meanwhile, the granny smiths maintain their original texture.

Besides that, if you don’t have 2 cans of biscuits, or you can’t find them at your local store, feel free to make delicious monkey bread with crescent rolls.

The step-by-step is the same, and the finished result is pretty similar, even though the crescent rolls give the monkey bread a more buttery and flaky texture.

Finally, if you liked this monkey bread with apples feel free to try other famous monkey bread recipes such as vegan monkey bread, cinnamon apple monkey bread, and pizza Monkey Bread.

Tips on Serving Monkey Bread with Apples

The monkey bread with apples is commonly served as a breakfast or an afternoon snack, but here I’ll give you some tips on how to serve it as a delicious dessert.

Since this is sweet monkey bread, I recommend you serve it with a generous spoon of vanilla ice cream, and this way you’ll get a fantastic dessert that mixes the warm temperature of the monkey bread with the ice cream.

With the recipe in this article, you will get a result similar to the classic apple fritter monkey bread, so you can also serve it with some chopped and toasted pecans or nuts on top. You can also add some cream cheese on top and it’ll taste delicious! 

The monkey bread with cream cheese is really tasty because it plays with the sweet and savory flavors of the ingredients.

Finally, I always recommend this monkey bread to be served on a large bread, so the guests can pull apart their dough balls and eat as many as they want. 

But if you know that one of your guests (or even yourself) has an intolerance to gluten, you can make the easy gluten-free monkey bread recipe, in a small amount and serve it for them! 

How to store Monkey Bread with Apples

One of the advantages of monkey bread is that it maintains its original texture and consistency for a long time, thanks to the fact that the sugar coating helps to preserve it.

Still, there are different methods to store this tasty monkey bread if you have leftovers, or if you just want to do it a few days before eating it.

If you only want to keep it for a couple of days, I recommend you keep it out of the refrigerator but well covered. You can cover it with a clean plastic bag or plastic wrap to prevent it from coming into contact with air.

Make sure that it is at room temperature away from the sun and from any type of odors or harmful elements, this way it can last up to 3 days.

You can also keep it for the same number of days in the refrigerator, but you should heat it before eating it to prevent the dough from having a hard consistency.

Lastly, you can also freeze your monkey bread and it will continue to be delicious! However, keep in mind that you can only freeze and thaw it once, otherwise, it will spoil.

You can keep it frozen in the freezer for up to 30 days, and then you just have to leave it in the fridge the night before eating it so that it defrosts.

Recipe Card: Monkey Bread with Apples