Craving something sweet? This easy monkey bread recipe is sure to satisfy. Classic, comforting, and ultra-craveable, monkey bread has small pieces of dough. These pieces pull apart effortlessly. This makes it a delightful dessert or breakfast treat. Our old-fashioned version uses quartered Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Biscuits. It combines cinnamon sugar and a buttery brown sugar glaze. This makes a simple, irresistible pastry that’s perfect any time of day.

Originally developed by the Pillsbury Test Kitchens and first shared in the 2003 Dough Magic! cookbook, as well as on the Pillsbury™ Grands! label, this recipe has been updated. It includes small tweaks like adjusting bake and cool times. Walnuts have been added for extra crunch. This pull-apart monkey bread is easy to master but truly impressive on a plate. Its simple prep and delicious flavor have made it one of our all-time favorites.

Recipe Ingredients

Just a few monkey bread ingredients are needed to make this sweet treat.

Biscuits: After years of testing various biscuit options, we’ve found that Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Flaky Layers Original Biscuits are the perfect choice for our monkey bread recipe. These refrigerated biscuits serve as a convenient shortcut to perfectly fill your pan.

Sugar: We call for both granulated sugar and brown sugar. Granulated sugar provides sweetness and helps create a crisp coating, while brown sugar forms the sticky glaze. We use light brown sugar, but dark can be substituted for a richer molasses taste.

Butter: Salted butter is our go-to since it’s more commonly available, but either salted or unsalted butter—or margarine—will work. Melted butter helps the sugar and cinnamon form a caramelized glaze over the biscuit pieces.

Cinnamon: Sugar and cinnamon are the classic taste combination for this monkey bread.

Raisins and Walnuts: We like to add these for extra flavor and crunch, but this is entirely optional. Feel free to leave them out if you prefer.

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