Sourdough Discard Monkey Bread [cinnamon pull apart]

This incredible sourdough discard monkey bread is the most amazing sourdough cinnamon pull apart bread you will ever eat!

Similar in flavor to fluffy cinnamon rolls, this simple tear and share sourdough monkey bread may just become your signature "take along" dish!

Super soft, squishy sourdough bread smothered in a caramelised brown butter sauce and then swirled with lashings of vanilla icing. Seriously how can you not love this iconic sourdough dessert bread?

If you really do love all things cinnamon, you could also try these sourdough cinnamon muffins or cinnamon discard crackers or even these cinnamon raisin sourdough bagels.

What Is Monkey Bread ... And Why Do We Call It That?

If you live outside of the US, you might not be familiar with "Monkey Bread". This interesting union of cake and bread is said to have come to the US with Hungarian Immigrants who introduced "Arany Galuska" to the US food landscape.

This "Golden Dumpling" often referred to as "Hungarian Coffee Cake" began being sold in bakeries across the US around the mid twentieth century. You can read more about the history of Monkey Bread here.

It's said to have gotten it's name "Monkey Bread" because people pick apart the pieces like a monkey might do. Kind of weird, right?

Of course, like all things food, what we know as Monkey Bread today has evolved from this delicious Hungarian beginning.

It now refers to a "cake" made from yeasted bread dough, dipped in butter and cinnamon sugar and drizzled in a caramel sauce. It is often served with icing and pecans - but not always.

Here's a fun fact - First Lady Nancy Reagan actually served Monkey Bread during Christmas at the White House!

Monkey bread is the ultimate tear and share or pull apart cinnamon bread! And made with sourdough ... well, it's just out of this world delicious!

What If I Don't Have Sourdough Discard?

The great thing about this recipe is you can choose to make it with active sourdough starter - or with sourdough discard. For the purposes of this recipe, I've added sourdough discard and commercial yeast to give it a boost.

If you wish to use active sourdough starter and leave out the commercial yeast - you can follow the recipe exactly. You will just need to adjust the rising times for your starter. Obviously it will take much longer for your dough to rise without the commercial yeast.

You might find this post on bulk fermentation helpful if you're using active sourdough starter.

How To Make Sourdough Discard Monkey Bread

This recipe is fairly simple - it just has a lot of steps. However, it is all pretty easy stuff, just a little fiddly. But, let me tell you, the time it takes is oh so worth it for all the caramelised, cinnamony pull apart goodness!!!

You can easily knead this recipe by hand with no issues. Alternatively, you could use a stand mixer to make it a little easier, particularly when adding the butter to the dough. The choice is totally yours!

The instructions I've provided are to knead by hand but you can throw the dough in the stand mixer when it comes time to add the butter if you want to.

Here's how to make Sourdough Discard Monkey Bread (step by step):

How To Make Sourdough Monkey Bread Dough

1. Add the yeast, sugar and warm milk to a bowl and allow them to get frothy.
   
2. Now add the sourdough starter and mix until well combined.
   
3. Now add the flour and salt and mix into a rough dough. You can use your hands to do this or a dough scraper - whatever you find more natural to you. Allow the dough to rest for 15 minutes.
   
4. Now it's time to knead in the butter. Add the butter a little at a time to ensure that it incorporates more easily (see notes for extra tips on this step).
   
5. Cover the dough and allow it to rise. You want it to double.

Assembling Sourdough Monkey Bread

1. Before you can assemble the monkey bread, you need to prepare the melted butter and cinnamon sugar mixture listed in the ingredient list above.
   
2. Take the dough that has doubled and turn it out onto the counter. You need to form the dough into small balls. I have chosen 30g per ball, but anywhere between 20 to 30g is perfect.Weigh each piece and form into a small ball. They don't have to be perfect as they will expand inside the bread pan.
   
3. Dip each of the balls into the melted butter, then into the cinnamon sugar and then layer the balls inside a well buttered bundt pan until you've used all the balls.
   
4. Cover the pan and allow the dough balls to proof and rise again.

Adding Sauce to Sourdough Monkey Bread

1. Once the dough has risen in the bundt pan and is light and fluffy, it's time to add the sauce and bake the monkey bread.I recommend preheating the oven at this stage, so it's ready once you've added the sauce. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C).
   
2. Melt the butter and then stir in the brown sugar and vanilla to create the brown sugar and butter sauce.
   
3. When you're ready to bake the sourdough monkey bread, pour the sauce all over the dough balls. Gently tap the bundt pan on the counter a few times to ensure that the sauce goes all the way through the dough.If the sauce seems like it's too much, you don't have to add it all. The amount you need will depend on the size of bundt pan you use.

How To Bake Sourdough Monkey Bread

1. PRO TIP - If the bundt pan is quite full, place it on a cookie sheet before placing it in the oven so that the base of your oven doesn't get sugar sauce dribbled on it.
   
2. Bake the sourdough monkey bread on the lowest shelf of your oven for around 40 minutes - or until it's baked through. Keep an eye on it as the top will burn really easily!If it's burning easily in the oven, pop a sheet of aluminium foil over the pan to protect the top.
   
3. When the monkey bread is cooked, take it out of the oven and let it sit for around 15 minutes. Be very careful as the sugar sauce will be very bubbly and hot!
   
4. Place a wire rack on the base of the bundt pan and carefully invert the sourdough monkey bread. If you want to catch all of the caramelised sauce, use a plate instead of a wire rack.

How To Ice Cinnamon Sourdough Monkey Bread

1. Mix together the sugar, milk and vanilla until it forms a thick paste.
   
2. Drizzle this all over the sourdough monkey bread.
   
3. Add chopped pecans on top of the icing if you would like to (this is completely optional).

Best Tips For Baking Monkey Bread

As you will have seen by reading through the method, there are a lot of steps to creating this sourdough pull apart cinnamon bread, but they are all fairly simple steps. There are just a lot of them.

Here are my best tips to ensure you get the tastiest, stickiest sourdough monkey bread - that has everyone asking for more, more, more!

• Use a bigger bundt pan that you think you need! You can see in my photos that my bundt pan is really full! There's no real issue with this, however I do recommend using a larger one if you can!
  
• Place a baking tray or cookie sheet under your bundt pan before you place it in the oven. This is particularly important if your bundt pan is really full (like mine!). It will stop any excess sugar sauce being spilled in the bottom of your oven.
  
• Use a piece of foil over the bundt pan if your monkey bread is browning too quickly. Because this recipe contains a lot of sugar, it can catch if you aren't watching it closely.

Do I Have To Use A Bundt Pan?

You do not have to bake monkey bread in a bundt pan. It does look pretty but if you don't have one, you can really bake it any type of pan.

A loaf pan always looks pretty if you do not have a bundt pan. Or just a plain round cake pan is fine too.

I recommend using a larger bundt pan. A 12 cup capacity is good, but use larger if you can find it.

How To Prevent Sticking?

Make sure you butter your Monkey Bread pan really well! I use a non stick bundt pan and then liberally coat the inside with butter before adding the dough balls.

Ideally, you don't want to leave the cooked sourdough monkey bread in the bundt pan for longer than 15 minutes after baking as the caramelised sauce does set quite sticky!

Invert it as soon as you can after that initial 15 minute rest to avoid your hard work sticking to the pan.

Flavor Variations

You know I love flavor variations! And this sourdough discard monkey bread has not escaped my creative ideas!

Here are some of the ways you could change up this cinnamon pull apart sourdough monkey bread:

• Dissolve a tablespoon of instant coffee into the brown sugar & butter sauce before pouring it over your dough balls.
  
• For absolutely decadence, use the vanilla cream cheese frosting from these sourdough cinnamon rolls instead of the vanilla frosting below.
  
• Add the zest of an orange to the dough - it's super delicious!
  
• For a gingerbread twist, add a teaspoon of ground ginger and ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg to the cinnamon sugar mix that you dip the balls of dough in. Add the molasses glaze from this gingerbread roll recipe on top of the vanilla icing. It's out of this world gingerbread good!!!

Freeze, Store + Make Ahead?

Sourdough discard monkey bread is best eaten the day of baking. I recommend serving within a few hours of baking for the best possible taste and texture.

This recipe is not suitable for freezing.

If you would like to make this recipe ahead of time, I would recommend placing the pan with the dough balls into the fridge as soon as you've shaped them. Allow it to come to room temp and become puffy before proceeding with the recipe.

Frequently Asked Questions