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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
Between busy schedules, Christmas parties, and everything else the holiday season brings, sometimes you need a shortcut that still feels special – and this recipe delivers! Made with canned biscuit dough, this Easy Christmas Monkey Breadcomes is festive, fun, and comes together so quickly. Plus, the bright red and green cherries make it just as beautiful as it is delicious!
If you have a little extra time and want that fully homemade touch, try my from-scratch Christmas Monkey Bread! And if you’re feeling festive, why not make more of my Christmas Desserts for holiday treats the whole family will love?
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This is a family-friendly recipe that’s easy to make with the kids – they can help with plenty of steps along the way!
- Total Time: You’ll have my Easy Christmas Monkey Bread ready in just 45 minutes from start to finish.
- Variations: Have fun with the mix-ins! While this recipe uses toasted pecans, you can easily swap in walnuts, dried cranberries, or chocolate chips. For extra flavor, you can also add a bit of orange zest or vanilla extract to your sauce. Finish this monkey bread off with my Perfect Whipped Cream or The BEST Cream Cheese Icing for a bakery-style touch!
- Tools For This Recipe: You will need a 12-cup Bundt pan, a large plastic bag, a small saucepan, a spoon for stirring, and a large plate or the base of a serving stand for flipping.
What You’ll Need for Ingredients
Biscuit Dough: Grab a few cans of refrigerated, non-flaky biscuit dough – it’s the best cheat for soft, pull-apart monkey bread with minimal effort!
Brown Sugar: Used both in the dough coating and the rich sauce, brown sugar adds the deep, caramel-like sweetness that this bread is known for. Karlynn’s Tip: Different types of brown sugar will slightly change the flavor, so feel free to experiment! Light brown sugar keeps things mellow, while dark brown adds a deeper, more molasses-forward taste.
Candied Cherries: Chopped red and green cherries add a festive pop of color and a lovely touch of sweetness, perfect for the holiday season.
Toasted Pecans: Pecans add a warm, nutty crunch that pairs beautifully with the cinnamon-sugar coating. Karlynn’s Tip: For an extra indulgent twist, try using my Old Fashioned Candied Pecans for a sweeter flavor with the same satisfying crunch – they complement the cozy spices in this recipe beautifully!
How To Make My Easy Christmas Monkey Bread
This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients & complete step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Grease a bundt pan with butter, then place a few cherries and pecans in the bottom and set aside.
- Separate the biscuits and cut each one into four equal pieces.
- Combine the cup of brown sugar and the cinnamon in a large plastic bag. Drop and shake each piece of dough in the sugar-cinnamon mixture.
- Place the dough pieces into the bundt pan.
- Stagger the layers of dough. Sprinkle a few cherries and pecans between each layer.
- Gently pour the prepared sauce over the dough balls in the pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Easy Christmas Monkey Bread
- Grease Generously: Be sure to grease your Bundt pan really well! Monkey bread loves to stick, and this helps it release cleanly after baking.
- Play with the Spices: Customize the flavor of this monkey bread by adding ginger, cardamom, or nutmeg to the cinnamon-sugar mixture. You’ll end up with a cozy, gingerbread-inspired twist! You can also stir a little vanilla extract into the sauce for extra warmth and depth.
- Make It Festive: For a fun holiday finish, sprinkle red and green sprinkles, crushed candy canes, or extra candied cherries over the top right after drizzling the sauce.
Storage Instructions
This Easy Christmas Monkey Bread is best enjoyed warm, fresh, and perfectly pull-apart – but you can absolutely save leftovers to enjoy later!
Refrigerator: Store your monkey bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the fridge for up to 4 days. To keep it from drying out, make sure it’s well covered.
Freezer: You can freeze leftovers in an airtight, freezer-safe container or in plastic wrap, then foil for up to 3 months, following USDA food safety guidelines. When ready to enjoy, let it thaw at room temperature and warm gently before serving for the best texture!
More Delicious Monkey Bread Recipes
Why stop at just one? Monkey bread is one of my all-time favorite treats, so be sure to try one of these well-loved Monkey Bread Recipes next:
- Keep things simple (and stress-free!) with my Cheater Skillet Monkey Bread – perfect for cozy nights and camping trips!
- What could be better than monkey bread stuffed with rich, melty chocolate? This Lindt Chocolate Stuffed Monkey Bread is pure decadence.
- My Babka Monkey Bread makes two Bundts, so it’s ideal for sharing at family gatherings. And even better, it’s easily one of the best I’ve ever had!
And just like that, your Easy Christmas Monkey Bread is ready to steal the show! Warm, gooey, and packed with festive flavor, it’s the kind of treat that disappears fast – don’t be surprised if everyone comes back for seconds.
Pull it apart, share it with the people you love, and enjoy every sticky, sweet bite! If you give this recipe a try, don’t forget to let me know how it turned out in the comments below.
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
Easy Christmas Monkey Bread
Ingredients
- 1020 ml refrigerated biscuit dough, non-flakey varieties
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ cup toasted pecans
- ½ cup chopped red and green Christmas candied cherries
Sauce
- ½ cup salted butter
- remainder of the brown sugar mixture from above
Instructions
Prepare the Dough
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Grease a 12 cup capacity bundt pan heavily with butter. Place a few cherries and pecans in the bottom and set aside. These cherries and pecans will be the TOP of your monkey bread so arrange artfully if desired.
- Separate the biscuits and cut each one into four equal pieces.
- Combine the cup of brown sugar and the cinnamon in a large plastic bag. Drop and shake each piece of dough in the sugar-cinnamon mixture, ensuring each piece is coated then place the dough pieces into the bundt pan.
- Stagger the layers of dough, building like you would build a brick wall, staggering the piece like bricks so that the seams are not in the same place. Sprinkle a few cherries and pecans between each of the layers, however you want.
Make the Sauce
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter and the remainder of the brown sugar cinnamon mixture from the bag.
- Heat the mixture, stirring to dissolve the sugars and melt the butter. Once the sugars have dissolved into the melted butter completely, remove from the heat. Do NOT let it come to a boil.
- Gently pour the warm mixture over top of the dough balls in the pan, trying not to disturb them or the cherries or pecans.
Bake
- Once done, bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until done.
- This took about 22-25 minutes in my oven.
- The bread will look slightly dark- watch out, you can overcook this!- and crisp on the outside.
- Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Cover the pan with a large plate, or the bottom of a serving stand and flip it over it to release the monkey bread onto the plate.
Notes
- Play around with the cherries and the nuts that you use for different flavors.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Polly Cobb says
That looks like a fruit cake. No monkey bread that I have ever seen.
Mr. Kitchen Magpie says
Good! Then we’ve achieved our goal of coming up with something unique!