Sourdough Monkey Bread
Sourdough Monkey Bread


What is Monkey Bread?
Monkey Bread is a sweet yeast bread formed by arranging small clumps of dough, which are dipped into melted butter first. Then stacked in 3 or 4 overlapping layers in a pan. The pan can be round, oblong or tube shape. After baking, the clumps cling together to form a solid piece. Monkey bread can be sweet and flavored with raisins, nuts, cinnamon and sugar or savory often made with grated cheese. Sourdough Monkey Bread is fabulous!

A Brief History of Sourdough
Sourdough; sourdough bread is a bread with a slightly sour, tangy flavor created by using a special yeast (airborne) starter as the leavener. San Francisco is known for its superior sourdough bread. Many stores in the area sell packages of dry sourdough starter for home bread bakers. Though most sourdoughs are made from all-purpose flour, there are many delicious variations including those made from whole-wheat or rye flour.

Sourdough Monkey Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough starter
- 3/4 cup water
- 3 cups flour, divided
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- Filling:
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional
- 1/2 cup raisins, optional
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, optional
- Icing:
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 2 to 4 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Equipment
- Bundt pan
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together starter, water and 1-1/2 cups of the flour. Cover loosely and leave at room temperature to proof at least 8 hours or overnight. When starter has proofed, mix the oil, sugar and eggs in a small bowl; add to the starter mixture. Stir in remaining 1-1/2 cups flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead 5 to 8 minutes, or until smooth. Cover loosely and let rest about 10 minutes. Roll out dough into a rectangle approximately 8 x 18-inches. Brush entire surface with half of the melted butter.
- In a small bowl, mix filling ingredients; sprinkle evenly over dough. Roll up along the 18" side, forming a log. Using a sharp knife dipped in flour, cut the roll into 24 pieces, then form into balls. Dip balls into remaining melted butter and place into a lightly greased bundt pan, stacking one on top of each other. Set in a warm place and let rise until doubled, 1 to 2 hours.
- Bake at 375º for about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven and flip pan upside down on serving plate. Mix together icing ingredients until desired drizzle consistency.
- Drizzle icing over warm sourdough monkey bread.
Recipe Notes:
Sourdough Zucchini Nut Bread is another recipe in A Week of Sourdough Recipes. Sourdough Monkey Bread turned out to be one of our favorite recipes that we made during this week of sourdough recipes. This yummy monkey bread is made with some of our favorite ingredients too. Hershey’s Mini Chocolate Chips, and Sun-Maid Raisins.

Another super sourdough recipe: Carrot Raisin Sourdough Muffins
50 Comments on “Sourdough Monkey Bread”
Awesome Sauce. Thanks for sharing,
Thank-you!!
Perfect for our day before Christmas brunch! Thank you so much for this recipe! The sourdough starter made all the difference from other recipes ❤️
I made these for the first time tonight and they were a definite success! I have a wetter starter, so I added more flour to the dough and used extra while I was kneading. I also made mine dairy free, so I subbed coconut oil instead of butter and oat milk instead of milk. I didn’t have any nuts on hand, so I sprinkled some shredded coconut over the brown sugar mixture before I rolled everything up and it was delicious! So fluffy and the perfect amount of sweet. Thank you!
Is it possible to put all of the flour in the night before to let it all ferment? My daughters tummy prefers an overnight ferment.
I bypass the step of rolling out the dough. I use a long piece of dental floss and cut golf ball sized pieces of dough, dip in butter snd toss in cinnamon sugar. Much easier.
I was right with you up until you asked us to roll out the dough. I used dental floss and cut small sections, rolled in butter then nut mixture. I randomly tossed then in the bunt pan. Worked great.
Great! Glad to here is was a success. Doesn’t dental floss work great:) Lynn
re your sourdough monkey bread -should I be starting with a fed starter or discard?
This is the second sourdough recipe of T2T I’ve made and this one hits it outta the park with my family too! Silly me, not to time the proof step correctly and ended up over-proofing after about 15 hours. Even so, my monkey bread turned out perfectly and we loved it! Your carrot muffins and now your monkey bread are my family’s new fave recipes! Thank you for sharing!
I’m so happy you are enjoying the sourdough recipes here on T2T. I was just thinking that I needed to get back to baking more with my sourdough starter. Lynn
This is the BEST Monkey Bread I’ve ever had! I added a bit more flour when kneading it but love how soft the dough is and I think you’re right, it depends a lot on how wet the starter is. I’ve got my second batch in the oven right now and can’t wait to eat them! Smell delicious and I just made them the first time a couple of weeks ago! Thank you for sharing!
Hello Deanna,
Thanks so much for stopping by today! I’m so glad you like the monkey bread:) It’s a house favorite! My grand beg me to make it every time they visit:) Enjoy the rest of your week. Lynn
I’m not a professional baker by any means, but I bake frequently and there is not enough flour in this recipe. I had to add a whole extra cup of flour just to be able to turn it onto the counter and then add generous amounts of flour to work with it. Even with that extra flour, it wasn’t enough to roll into 24 balls, ESPECIALLY with how much butter and filling is written here. I got 16 balls, and they were struggling to hold half of the suggested filling. I’m not one to comment on blog recipes very often, but I want to spare the next home baker a half of a stick of butter and the struggle of trying to make this work.
So sorry for the late response but I made this recipe in 2014 and wanted to go over the recipe in depth to see what could have caused the problems you had with this recipe. Many time when making a sourdough recipe a lot has to do with your starter. I keep my on the thicker side. Three cups of flour is a sufficient amount of flour, in my opinion. An extra 1/2 cup to 1 cup max could possibly be added. Proofing the dough also was a vital step. As far as the filling; the filling calls for 1 cup brown sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. The remaining ingredients are optional. One stick of butter, melted with some spread on the dough and then the balls dipped into the melted butter is usually the norm in monkey bread. I’m so sorry you had problems with this recipe..Lynn
I agree with another reviewer about hi wet the dough was. I had to add 1.5 cups more four to even get to a point where it wasn’t sticking to my hands, counter, bench scraper or the rolling pin.
So sorry to hear that:( The recipe is from Kathy Doogan’s booklet, “Sourdough, The Alaskan Way.” Lynn
Hi! Can I use sourdough discard or does it have to be active starter? Thanks!
I have never this recipe using discard but you could certainly give it a try.Lynn
Should the starter be fed or unfed??
Hello Darci,
All sourdough recipes on T2T require a fed or active starter unless otherwise stated. Lynn
Delicious! Thankyou for the recipe. We enjoyed this on Christmas morning. I added small pieces of apple to the middle of dough balls and it was lovely with the cinnamon.
Happy Holidays to You and Yours!
So happy to hear you liked the monkey bread. Never thought to add pieces of apple! Super idea and one I’ll try:) Lynn
Hi Tiffany,
Let me know how it turned out!
Lynn
I'm making this today! Its in the oven. 15 more grueling minutes to wait!
Oh my gosh, how genius to make mini-cinnamon rolls as your "dough balls" for your monkey bread. It looks gorgeous and I bet it tasted amazing! Great job!
It looks so yummy indeed! Love the fact that it's made with cinnamon rolls instead of just balls.
That looks wonderful! I'm drooling…
Soft and fluffy cinnamon roll monkey bread. Sounds a winner to me! Beautiful!
Thanks so much for stopping by~
Looks like a fantastic book, and quite a product! Beautiful!
Thanks Rachel!
Love all those twists and swirls from the cinnamon rolls. Delicious!
Thank you!
Oh, I love your filling! All the good things rolled up in fluffy dough!
Thanks Robyn~
That looks amazing! I've never made monkey bread, but I'm going to have to try!
You have got make some Monkey Bread!! You will love it~
What an awesome idea for sourdough starter. Never would have thought of this! Pinning!
I was a little skeptical too, but this turned out fantastic!
Lovely combination of gooey outside and fluffy crumb on the inside: impressive!
Thank you!!
This looks so good. Wow. I made my bread back in January and I think I may need to make another after going through everyone's posts today.
I forgot how much I love monkey until I made this one….could be dangerous!
I tried this recipe in my home as your steps you write in this article and this is so easy to make this recipe. It is amazing to make and very interesting.
Very useful and helpful for me to make recipes like that very easily in my home.
Thank You!!!
Your very welcome, and thank-you for stopping by. Lynn
Thanks!!
bread↑
Love how this looks! Oh so gooey. And the inside looks perfectly cooked!
Thanks for stopping Jane~ The inside was light and fluffy~