This caramel apple monkey bread is sticky, sweet, and loaded with tender baked apples for a delectable fall treat. Store-bought biscuit dough makes it come together in a snap!
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Pin RecipeCaramel apple monkey bread is a wonderful breakfast treat, but also decadent enough to be a dessert. In fact, it’s so good you should probably just eat it all day long!
Like Apple Strudel, Slow Cooker Apple Crisp, and Apple Pancakes, this is the perfect recipe to make in the fall when fresh, local apples are in season. Everyone will think you’ve spent hours in the kitchen to make it, but they don’t have to know that you started with a simple shortcut!
Easy Caramel Apple Monkey Bread Recipe
Monkey bread is always a fun treat to make, and refrigerated buttermilk biscuits make it come together lickety-split. Chop the biscuit pieces up, toss them in a cinnamon sugar mixture, and the recipe is almost done! This sweet treat is so much easier than cinnamon rolls, French toast and even faster than making an omelet. It’s seriously simple.
I add Granny Smith apples to my monkey bread, which gives the dessert a slightly tart flavor to balance the sweetness of the caramel. Make this monkey bread at the end of the summer when apples are just starting to be in season or in the middle of the fall when you’re craving a cozy treat. Any time of year is a good time for caramel apple monkey bread!
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Ingredients for Caramel Apple Monkey Bread
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
- Brown Sugar – I like to use light brown sugar for this recipe. The subtle molasses flavor is delicious with the tart apples.
- Sugar
- Ground cinnamon
- Refrigerated buttermilk biscuits – Any brand of buttermilk biscuits will work, but I like to use Pillsbury brand, which I think has the best flavor and softest texture.
- Granny Smith apples – Caramel monkey bread is so sweet that a tart apple is needed to balance the flavors. Fresh apples are important, so skip the canned apples, which are too soft and sweet.
- Butter – I use unsalted butter to make the caramel sauce since there is already the perfect amount of salt added to the recipe.
- Sea salt – Kosher salt also works well. I like the larger flakes of salt in the caramel sauce.
Variations
Here are a few recipe substitutes and variations you may like to try:
- Regular biscuits will work in place of buttermilk biscuits. You can also use homemade biscuits if you want to get super fancy!
- Any kind of crisp baking apple will work in place of Granny Smith apples. Honeycrisp apples, Gala apples or Golden Delicious apples are all good choices.
- If you don’t have a bundt pan, make the caramel monkey bread in a 9-inch cake pan. The bread will take a little longer to cook in the center, so start with about 5 minutes of extra baking time and then start checking for doneness. You can also bake the monkey bread in a loaf pan. Two 8×4 loaf pans will work well and then you will get two perfect loaves of gooey caramel apple monkey bread!
- Replace the cinnamon with apple pie spice to make the monkey bread taste like it is stuffed with apple pie filling.
- Add 1 cup of chopped pecans to make caramel apple pecan monkey bread. Sprinkle a little bit of pecans into the pan as you alternate between the dough balls and the apple chunks.
How to Make Caramel Apple Monkey Bread
- Prepare: Preheat the oven to 350ºF and spray a 9-inch bundt pan with baking spray.
- Mix the sugars: Whisk together the sugars and cinnamon in a large bowl.
- Coat the biscuits: Cut the canned biscuits into quarters, then toss them with the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Make sure each piece of dough is covered in the cinnamon sugar.
- Prep the apples: Peel and core the apples, then chop them into ¼-inch pieces.
- Fill the pan: Add half of the biscuit mix to the prepared pan then sprinkle with about half of the apple pieces. Add about ¼ more of the biscuit dough, then more apples. Repeat until the pan is full.
- Make the caramel sauce: Add all of the ingredients to a medium bowl and stir. Pour the sweet caramel sauce over the biscuit dough in the bundt pan, drizzling it evenly over the dough in the pan.
- Bake: Bake the monkey bread for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the sauce is bubbling around the edges.
- Cool: Let the homemade monkey bread cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes. Flip it out of the pan and onto a serving tray. Enjoy while warm.
Quick Tip
Make sure you flip the monkey bread out of the pan before it cools. If the caramel apple monkey bread cools for too long in the bundt pan, it will start to stick to the pan, making it hard to unmold.
How to Store Caramel Apple Monkey Bread
If you happen to have extra caramel apple monkey bread, wrap the entire plate in plastic wrap or move it into an airtight container. Store the monkey bread at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also store the pull-apart bread in the fridge for up to a week.
Reheat the monkey bread in the microwave for about 15-30 seconds to make the caramel sauce gooey again.
FAQs
Traditional monkey bread is typically made with chopped-up biscuit dough tossed in cinnamon and sugar. This caramel apple monkey bread also has diced apples mixed with the dough and an easy homemade caramel sauce poured over the entire dish.
The reason behind the name “monkey bread” is uncertain. Food historians guess that the name stems from the fact that the bread is easy to pull apart with your fingers, the way a monkey use their hands to eat.
Monkey bread is also called pluck-it cake, pinch-me cake, bubble bread, pull-apart bread, monkey puzzle bread, and jumble bread. No matter the name, it still tastes fantastic!
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Caramel Apple Monkey Bread
Ingredients
Monkey Bread
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
- 2 Granny Smith apples
Caramel Sauce
- ¾ cup melted butter, warm
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9” bundt pan with baking spray and set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix the ¼ cup brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon together.¼ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup white sugar, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Separate the buttermilk biscuits into 16 individual biscuits then cut each biscuit into fourths. Toss the biscuit pieces into the bowl of cinnamon sugar, coating the biscuits on all sides with sugar.2 cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
- Peel the apples and dice them into small pieces, about 1/4th of an inch in size.2 Granny Smith apples
- Add about ½ of the sugared biscuits into the bottom of the greased bundt pan. Add about ½ of the diced apples on top of the biscuits in the pan. Then add a few more biscuit pieces to the pan followed by more apples. Continue alternating the biscuits and apples until the pan is full.
- Make the caramel sauce next. In a small bowl, whisk together the warm butter, brown sugar and salt. Pour the caramel sauce over the biscuits and apples in the pan, drizzling it evenly over the biscuits.1 cup brown sugar, ¾ cup melted butter, warm, ½ teaspoon sea salt
- Bake the monkey bread for about 30 minutes. The top will look golden brown and not doughy. The caramel will be bubbling slightly around the edges.
- Remove the pan from the oven then let the monkey bread cool for about 5 minutes. Flip the pan upside down and on to a serving plate. Gently remove the pan to unveil the monkey bread. Serve while warm.
