Cinnamon Sugar Monkey Bread Bites

When the weather dips into the single digits, I start craving some serious comfort food, and that extends to breakfast too.

Especially on a weekend morning, when all the family is home!

These cinnamon sugar monkey bread bites are so easy to make, and are the perfect comforting sweet breakfast treat.

Each bite tastes like the incredibly ooey gooey center of a cinnamon roll!

How to make cinnamon sugar monkey bread?

This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.

1. Make cinnamon sugar. After you’ve combined them, melt some butter in another bowl, and roll biscuit pieces into balls.
2. Dip in butter. Gloves are helpful for this part, but not necessary.
3. Roll in sugar mixture. You want the ball to be coated well.
4. Add to baking dish. Pile them in there.
5. Bake. You’re looking for the monkey bread bites to be golden brown.
6. Make glaze. At first it may seem like there isn’t enough liquid, but just keep whisking and it’ll come together.
7. Drizzle and serve. Drizzle liberally with the half of glaze and serve warm, with the extra glaze served on the side for dipping.

Variations of this recipe

• Butter – if you’d like to use salted butter, you can omit the salt from the recipe.
• Cinnamon to sugar ratio – please feel free to play around with the ratio of sugar to cinnamon until you’ve found the one you love most.
• Glaze – to add some extra flavor, try using eggnog instead of milk, and using rum extract instead of vanilla.
• Biscuit dough – I haven’t tested this recipe using homemade biscuit dough, so I can’t say for certain how it’ll turn out. But if you wanted to experiment, I’d love to know how it goes!
• Caramel – instead of coating the bites in cinnamon sugar, you can make a quick caramel sauce and dip each bite in that before baking. In a saucepan, melt 1/3 cup each of unsalted butter and light brown sugar. Whisk until completely melted and combined, then remove from the heat and whisk in about 2 Tbsp of heavy whipping cream. Let that cool, then dip each bite in the caramel sauce and add to the pan. Pour any remaining sauce over the top. Bake as directed, then omit the glaze.
• Other baking pans – traditionally monkey bread is baked in a fluted bundt pan, and although I haven’t tested this recipe in that pan, I think it would work well. I would increase the baking time to 35-40 minutes and see if you need to alter it from there.

Making monkey bread ahead of time

I think this sweet breakfast tastes best when made right before serving, but if you need to, you can make this entirely ahead of time.

Bake as directed, but hold off on the glaze, otherwise too much of it can get absorbed into the bread.

Storage

Leftovers should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

At room temp, they should be enjoyed within 2-3 days. In the refrigerator, they should be enjoyed within 4-5 days.