The most gooey and delicious vegan monkey bread made from scratch that tastes just like the classic! Super soft cinnamon roll bites baked in a gooey and sticky sweet caramel sauce for a dairy free vegan holiday breakfast!

baked vegan monkey bread being served on a marble platter

Why this recipe works:

If you’ve ever had monkey bread, then rest assured that this vegan monkey bread tastes identical to the classic recipe. It’s undetectably eggless and dairy free, yet it’s gooey, sticky, full of cinnamon and sweetness, and so soft and pillowy with every bite.

Here’s what you need to know:

  • We’re using a plush, homemade brioche dough instead of biscuits. While this seems like the long way around to get the “same results,” I can assure you- it’s SO not. The homemade brioche dough (using dairy free ingredients and NO eggs) is quick and easy to make- all of 10 minutes of work. And the result is truly incomparable to biscuit dough. I’ve been making monkey bread for about 25 years now using yeasted dough rather than biscuit dough, so I can tell you that the minimal extra work is truly so worth it!
  • We toss the dough balls all together in a cinnamon sugar mixture drenched with vegan butter. I used to individually coat eat dough ball- which, for the record, is 60+ dough balls bites! – but now I simply toss the dough balls in a bowl with the melted vegan butter, cinnamon and sugar, to quickly coat our monkey bread bites before baking! It makes for a seamless, even easier process!
  • The monkey bread is baked with a sticky quick toffee sauce for extra gooeyness! The cinnamon sugar caramelizes beautifully with the vegan butter as the dough bites bake up, but I recently retested this recipe with extra toffee sauce, poured on the bottom of the pan and on top of the dough bites. The results were insane. Extra rich, gooey, and sticky with the same plush, soft cinnamon roll bites all stuck together in a beautiful dome!
  • You only need 35 minutes to bake. That’s IT! Just an hour to rise the dough, 15 minutes to assemble, and you’re in the oven and baking for 35 minutes. Then we have the most perfect FLIP of the pan to release our gorgeously sticky and soft monkey bread that releases perfectly each time!

Trust me, this vegan monkey bread is what you’re going to be making every time the family comes around. It’s perfect for Christmas morning, Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving morning, or any holiday brunch!

The Ingredients You Need

For some reason, many people are under the assumption that making dough from scratch for homemade monkey bread is difficult, and purchasing biscuit dough is just easier.

Yes, vegan canned biscuits do exist (apparently some of Pillsbury’s biscuits are accidentally vegan). But making the dough from scratch not only tastes better, but is actually just as easy as going to the store and getting a can.

I’m going to show you that making homemade vegan cinnamon dough is actually not that complicated!

For this vegan monkey bread, you’ll need:

  • All purpose flour. I’ve actually found in my testing that I prefer all-purpose flour to bread flour here. Which honestly, I was surprised by because we know bread flour has more protein for structure in the bread. And since this monkey bread is vegan, I originally thought I’d need to add more protein to the dough for stability. But the contrary happened- the all-purpose flour version I tested was WAY softer yet held up a solid structure. Whereas the bread flour version was TOO bread-y and not soft enough. So goes to show- even I can still be surprised in vegan baking!
  • Active dry yeast: For this recipe, I use active dry yeast. I find it’s the most reliable instead of using rapid rise yeast. Which, in my experience, can sometimes yield faulty results.
  • Sugar & light brown sugar. For the dough and the cinnamon sugar coating, we’re using granulated sugar, and light brown sugar for the toffee sauce.
  • Dairy free milk: I recommend soy milk or oat milk, as this will give the dough more of that brioche texture. You can also use almond milk.
  • Dairy free yogurt: this replaces the eggs in normal homemade monkey bread. I find it’s the PERFECT egg replacement for many recipes, but especially with enriched doughs (which is what we’re using here!).
  • Cinnamon: this wouldn’t be monkey bread without it!
  • Vegan butter/coconut oil: I’ve used both; the vegan butter definitely yields a flavor that’s closer to true monkey bread. If you’re nut-free, you can use coconut oil or a nut-free based vegan butter.
  • Vanilla: this is a minimal yet highly necessary ingredient that will make your vegan monkey bread taste just like the classic.
hand pulling piece of monkey bread

Overview: How to make monkey bread from scratch

For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.

Making the dough:

yeast being activated in a glass
Much like any other yeast-risen dough we’ve made on the Banana Diaries, you’ll activate the yeast with heated dairy free milk, coconut sugar, and a bit of flour. As I mentioned, you can use either rapid rise or activated yeast. The yeast should start to bubble, foam, and smell of yeast. If it hasn’t, then you’ll need to start over- this is crucial!
dough before proofing
Next we’ll make the dough. You can use a stand mixer or make the dough by hand. Either works! We’ll then place the dough ball into a greased bowl to proof until doubled in size.
dough after proofing
Once doubled in size (about 1 hour in a warm area of above 85F), we’ll start to shape the dough.

Making cinnamon roll dough bites

divided monkey bread dough
Next, divide the dough into 4 equal sections on a lightly floured surface.
monkey bread dough divided
Then divide each quarter into 10-15 individual pieces. You want 40-50 monkey bread pieces.
rolled monkey bread dough
Next, we’ll start our monkey bread assembly! Roll a piece of dough between your palms to round it.
monkey bread bites being coated
Drop them into the bowl and immediately toss with vegan butter. Then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar mixture and coat evenly.
toffe sauce in a pan
We’ll also quickly make our toffee sauce in a pan by heating the vegan butter and light brown sugar together!
monkey bread before baking
Pour half of the toffee sauce on the bottom, followed by the cinnamon dough bites and then the remaining toffee sauce evenly spread on top.

Bake the monkey bread!

baked monkey bread
Rest the monkey bread by the oven while it preheats. It’ll rise a little more. Then bake for 33-35 minutes, placing the bundt cake pan onto a baking sheet just in case any sugar spills out!
drizzling caramel over the monkey bread
Carefully place a plate on top of the bundt cake pan after it’s cooled for 15 minutes. Use oven mitts to carefully flip the bundt cake pan upside down, holding the plate to the pan the entire time. Then carefully pull up the bundt cake pan to reveal your monkey bread, and top with homemade vegan caramel or a simple glaze!

How do you know when monkey bread is done?

To know when your monkey bread is done, I use a butter knife and stick it through the center of one of the sides of the monkey bread. If it comes out mostly clean, the monkey bread is ready to be removed! If it’s still a bit gooey, leave the monkey bread in for a few more minutes.

I also use an oven mitt to gently press onto one of the monkey bread bites. If it puffs back up immediately and the form immediately returns to shape, then it’s done!

bitten monkey bread
baked piece of vegan monkey bread

🔑 Key tip: Remember to check the monkey bread doneness near the end of the baking time. Checking it in the middle will affect the baking process. When the monkey bread is done, the cinnamon dough balls will be puffed and crispy on the outside.

If you don’t have a fluted pan or a bundt pan, you can actually use a large rectangular pan instead.

Of course, it won’t look like traditional monkey bread, but it will taste just as amazing, and might actually cook more evenly!

If you’re using a rectangular pan rather than a round bundt pan, the monkey bread will cook faster. Make sure to check the monkey bread after 20 minutes to see how much longer it has to go.

baked piece of monkey bread pulled off

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baked vegan monkey bread being served on a marble platter

Homemade Plush & Soft Vegan Monkey Bread Recipe – EASY!

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 11 reviews
  • Author: Britt Berlin
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 20 1x
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: Hungary
  • Diet: Vegan
Print Recipe

Description

The most gooey and delicious vegan monkey bread made from scratch that tastes just like the classic! Super soft cinnamon roll bites baked in a gooey and sticky sweet caramel sauce for a dairy free vegan holiday breakfast!

Ingredients

Scale

Vegan Monkey Bread Dough:

  • 4 1/4 cups (540 g) + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour, divided (plus more for flouring surface)
  • 1 packet (8 g) activated yeast
  • 1/2 cup (90 g) granulated sugar, divided
  • 1 1/4 cup (270 mL) dairy-free milk, unsweetened, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup (57 g) salted vegan butter, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1/3 cup (87 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature

Cinnamon Sugar Coating:

  • 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan butter, melted

Toffee sauce:

  • 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan butter
  • 3/4 cup (150 g) light brown sugar

Instructions

  1. Please read through all instructions before beginning.
  2. Prep: Grease a large clean bowl with olive oil for the dough proofing. Gather all ingredients and measure them out. Grease a large bundt pan as well.
  3. Bloom the yeast: Add the heated dairy free milk and sugar to a large bowl. Stir and add in the yeast. Stir again and cover the bowl. Place the bowl in a warm area to activate for 10 minutes. The yeast should start to bubble, foam, and smell of yeast. If it hasn’t, then you’ll need to start over.
  4. Make the dough: Once the yeast is activated, pour the mixture into a large bowl or a stand mixer bowl with dough attachment. Add the dairy free yogurt, vanilla extract, and sea salt, and mix on medium (either with the stand mixer or using a large spoon) until it’s combined. Next, add in the flour, and mix until the dough is sticky but the flour is completely mixed in. Once all of the flour is added in, lightly flour a clean surface, and turn the stand mixer onto high speed (keeping an eye on any traveling stand mixers!) to knead for 2-4 minutes until a shaggy dough forms. Add in the room temperature vegan butter, and begin to mix again on medium speed until a slightly tacky dough ball forms, about 10 minutes. The dough will at first appear to come apart into what looks like thick cake batter once the butter is added, then it will reform into a dough ball. Patience! 
  5. Proof the dough. Place the dough ball in the oiled bowl. Cover with a clean dish towel and place the dough in a warm area (at least 85F) to double in size (usually an hour).
  6. Once the dough is doubled in size: Make the toffee sauce right before you punch down the dough. In a medium saucepan, heat the vegan butter until melted on medium heat. Stir in the light brown sugar, and heat until the sugar is melted into the butter and bubbling, about 5 minutes. Continue stirring every so often until the sugar is melted and bubbling into a toffee sauce. Set aside. 
  7. Make the cinnamon roll bites: Once the dough has risen, punch down the dough. Use a bench scraper or large knife to divide the dough in half then into quarters. Then divide the quarters even more: you’ll want to make about 50-60 dough balls from the dough. Divide the quarters into at least 10 dough balls each (about 1″-1.5″ in diameter), but you don’t need them to be even. Place the dough balls into a large clean bowl and IMMEDIATELY coat in the vegan butter. Toss with clean hands to evenly coat. Then sprinkle in the granulated sugar and cinnamon. Toss again to evenly coat.
  8. Assembling the monkey bread: Pour half of the toffee sauce onto the bottom of the prepared bundt pan. Then spoon the coated monkey bread bites on top. Finally, pour the remaining toffee sauce on top. 
  9. Allow the monkey bread dough to rest again: Preheat the oven to 350F. Once you’ve poured the vegan butter mixture over the dough, cover the bundt pan with a clean dish towel again and place near the oven to rest while the oven preheats, about 20 minutes.
  10. Bake the monkey bread: once the monkey bread has rested and the oven is fully preheated, bake the monkey bread for 33-35 minutes, or until the tops of the monkey bread dough balls are crispy and puffy. You can also stick a knife into the middle of the monkey bread (carefully): if it comes out nearly clean, the monkey bread is read; if it comes out slightly dough and gooey, then it needs more time.
  11. Flip and serve: To remove the monkey bread from the pan, use oven mitts to place a plate on the top of the pan (face down), and hold the plate with the oven mitts to the pan. Carefully flip the pan upside down, and the monkey bread should come out. Allow the monkey bread to cool for 10 minutes then serve!

Notes

Gluten free option: Please use this gluten free vegan monkey bread recipe for a gluten free monkey bread!

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 serving
  • Calories: 247
  • Sugar: 19.6 g
  • Sodium: 106.7 mg
  • Fat: 4.7 g
  • Saturated Fat: 0.8 g
  • Carbohydrates: 45.6 g
  • Fiber: 1.9 g
  • Protein: 5.1 g
  • Cholesterol: 0 mg