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 or coconut sugar, divided
- 1 1/4 cup (270 mL) dairy-free milk, unsweetened, room temperature
- 1/4 cup (57 g) salted vegan butter, melted and room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup (87 g) unsweetened applesauce or dairy free yogurt, room temperature
Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
- 1 – 1 1/2 cups (200–300 g) light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan butter or coconut oil, melted
Simple glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp dairy free milk
- Alternative: 1/2 batch vegan caramel sauce
- Optional: chopped walnuts, hazelnuts, or almonds
Instructions
- Please read through all instructions before beginning.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 applesauce, melted vegan butter or coconut oil, and vanilla extract, 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 10-12 minutes (alternatively, if you’re making the dough by hand, you can knead the dough for 10-12 minutes on a lightly floured surface until it’s no longer sticky to touch. Be careful to not add too much flour).
- 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).
- Make the cinnamon roll bites: Once the dough has risen, punch down the dough, and create your assembly line for the cinnamon sugar coating. Place the melted vegan butter or coconut oil in one bowl and whisk together the ground cinnamon and light brown sugar in another bowl. As you’re making the cinnamon roll bites, you might need more coconut sugar towards the end, depending on how many cinnamon roll bites you make. 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 40-50 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. Take one dough ball and dip it into the melted vegan butter, then coat it into the cinnamon sugar. Place the coated cinnamon sugar dough ball into the bundt pan and repeat for the remaining dough balls.
- Assembling the monkey bread: As you’re arranging the dough balls, just place them around the bottom of the pan and build up. Do not discard the vegan butter and brown sugar yet. You may have some leftovers, so combine the leftover cinnamon sugar with the vegan butter. Stir until it’s completely mixed and set aside. Pour the cinnamon sugar butter mixture over the the dough.
- 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.
- Bake the monkey bread: once the monkey bread has rested and the oven is fully preheated, bake the monkey bread for 30-35 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.
- Make the glaze: remove the monkey bread from the oven and allow the pan to cool for 10 minutes while you make the glaze. Whisk together the powdered sugar with the dairy free milk until there are no more clumps, then set aside. 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. Drizzle the glaze over the monkey bread and serve!
Notes
Gluten free option: Please use this gluten free vegan monkey bread recipe for a gluten free monkey bread!
*Using rapid rise yeast will make the rise time a lot faster. Both rapid rise and activated yeast work for this recipe, just note that using rapid rise will make the dough process a bit quicker.
*For gluten free/Paleo, please see this Paleo vegan monkey bread recipe.
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