Name: Sourdough Monkey Bread - Discard Option
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 520 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup warm milk; 1/2 cup sourdough starter (active or discard); 1/2 cup melted butter or tallow; 1/2 cup sugar; 1/2 tsp salt; 2 eggs; 4 cups flour; 1 tsp baking powder, optional (use if baking right away or using sourdough discard); 1 tsp baking soda, optional (use if baking right away or using sourdough discard); 1 cup sugar; 2 Tbsp cinnamon; 1/2 cup melted butter

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Sourdough monkey bread is a sweet and tangy cinnamon pull-apart bread that is made with balls of sourdough tossed in a cinnamon sugar coating and then baked in a gooey caramel sauce. It is so fun and easy to make, similar to sourdough cinnamon rolls, but with less fuss, this cinnamon pull-apart bread made with a sweet dough is a go-to recipe for our family for breakfast or even dessert all throughout the year.

This recipe can be made the night before and allowed to long ferment on the counter, so it’s perfect for a busy summer morning or a special breakfast on a holiday morning. You can also mix up this recipe and bake it right away for a quick dessert. This flexible recipe can be made with active sourdough starter or sourdough discard. There’s something about the slight tang of the sourdough combined with the sweet ribbons of brown sugar filling that makes this the best monkey bread you’ll ever eat!

You can easily add variations to this sourdough monkey bread by adding in some apple pie filling for fall, or even some fresh blueberries for spring. Use this as your base recipe, and mix it up with all kinds of different variations.

Many years ago I spent a lot of time cooking at hunting camps and this recipe was always a big hit with all the hunters. Easy to grab a few pieces and head out the door on a hunt, or enjoy them as a snack with a cup of coffee or tea. I’ve even been known to make this recipe and take it to the garden

What Are The Health Benefits Of Sourdough?

Anytime you add a fermented element like sourdough to a recipe, it becomes more nutritious because it contains live probiotics and good bacteria that help with gut health and digestion. Gluten and phytic acid are naturally present in wheat, and are usually what is to blame for people not being able to digest gluten well. The gluten and phytic acid are broken down when the grain is fermented through the sourdough process, making it easier to digest. A lot of people that struggle with gluten intolerance (not people with celiac), can digest food made with sourdough without any issue, especially if the recipe is allowed to sit out for a few hours and “long ferment”.

In addition, phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that blocks absorption of the nutrients found in wheat. During the sourdough fermentation process, the phytic acid gets broken down and the nutrients are more bio-available to the body. This is why baking with sourdough is so important for our health.

Be sure to watch our full tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter here.

For more of our favorite sourdough recipes, check out the sourdough portion of our website: Sourdough.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

Tips

To gain all of the health benefits from making these with long-fermented sourdough, be sure to allow them to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight. This will ensure that most of the phytic acid and gluten in the flour are consumed by the sourdough starter making these much easier to digest especially if you are gluten intolerant.
If your sourdough starter is really thin, you may need to add a little more flour to this recipe. I always mix them until they dough pulls away from the sides of my mixer bowl, or until it’s not super sticky if mixing up by hand.
You can mix these in a mixer (my favorite is a Bosch), or just mix up the dough and do a series of kneading or stretch and folds every few minutes for about an hour to develop the gluten in the dough.
It is perfectly safe to add the eggs to this dough and still allow the dough to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight because the good active bacteria in the sourdough starter will prevent any bad bacteria from forming in the eggs.
If you don’t have a bundt pan, you can also bake this in a 9″ x 13″ pan too.

Dough Ingredients

Water or milk

You can use warm milk or buttermilk in this monkey bread recipe. Basically any kind of liquid will be fine including non-dairy milk.

Sourdough starter

Active sourdough starter is preferred, but sourdough discard works just fine too providing you are adding the baking soda and baking powder into the recipe. Learn how to make your own sourdough starter here.

Butter

Homemade butter is my favorite fat to put into these rolls, but you can also use melted beef tallow or coconut oil.

Sweetener

Sugar is what I use most often, but you can make these with honey or cane sugar as well.

Salt

Redmond real salt from Azure Standard is my favorite, but any kind of salt will do.

Eggs

Farm fresh eggs are always best.

Flour

Bread flour will make the fluffiest rolls, but I’ve made this monkey bread many times with all-purpose flour. You could also make them with whole-grain flour, but they wouldn’t be quite as fluffy.

Baking powder & baking soda

Optional – only needed if using discard or baking right away with no rise time. In those cases, this will be the leavening agent that makes the monkey bread rise.

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Other Ingredients

Glaze (Optional)

Powdered Sugar
Milk

Tools You May Need

Stand mixer. You can mix this monkey bread up by hand, but I usually use my favorite Bosch mixer and just mix up the dough while I’m cleaning up supper dishes in the evening. This makes this sourdough monkey bread recipe fast and easy to make.
Measuring cups and spoons
Bundt pan

How To Make Delicious Sourdough Monkey Bread

Mix Up The Dough

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine all the monkey bread ingredients.

If using a mixer, start mixing on medium-low speed and slowly add the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

If you’re not using a mixer, add the flour to the other ingredients in the bowl. Knead until the dough comes together into a nice ball. Stretch and fold or knead the dough every 15-30 minutes for a couple hours. This will develop the gluten similar to how the mixer develops it by mixing.

Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

Grease the bottom of the pan with butter or tallow.

greasing bundt pan for sourdough monkey bread

Assemble The Monkey Bread

Pinch off golf ball sized dough pieces. Roll them in your hands until they are smooth. Roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place in the greased bundt pan.

Add melted butter to the cinnamon sugar mixture. Pour this butter mixture over the top of the monkey bread dough.

mixing up caramel sauce for sourdough monkey bread

adding caramel sauce to sourdough monkey bread

If using active starter, cover with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and let the dough rise on the counter 6-8 hours or overnight for bulk fermentation. If you need to wait longer than overnight to bake them, place them in the refrigerator, and pull them out to finish raising a couple of hours before baking.

You can also freeze the monkey bread at this point, and take it out of the freezer to raise and bake later on.

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and immediately flip upside down onto a platter or large plate.

Mix up optional glaze if desired and drizzle over the top of the monkey bread.

Savor every bite! Store any leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to one week, although I know they’ll never last that long.

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21