Monkey Bread Muffins
your new favorite carbs
Equipment
Stand mixer with a dough hook
Rolling pin
Muffin tin
Baking cup liners
Ingredients
Monkey bread dough
2 cups unsweetened plant-based milk (I used Simple Truth almond)
2 tablespoons instant yeast (I used Fleischmann’s RapidRise)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 stick butter, softened (Country Crock plant butter, always)
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons melted butter, or neutral oil
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream (I used Country Crock plant cream)
2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Make your muffins
Preheat your oven to the “warm” setting - around 200 degrees F. Once it is preheated, turn your oven off and leave the door open a few inches. (Trust the process.)
Warm your milk in the microwave for about 90 seconds until warm, not hot.
Add the warmed milk, yeast, and sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix with your fingertips to incorporate the sugar and yeast with the milk. Let stand for at least 1 minute. This mixture should become foamy on top; if it does not, your yeast may be dead! Start over with new yeast if it is not foaming.
Once foamy, add the stick of softened butter to the bowl, along with 3 cups of flour. Mix on the lowest setting to incorporate the butter and flour to create a very shaggy, wet mixture. Add the rest of the flour slowly while the mixer is still on low. Once a soft dough starts to form and it pulls from the sides of the bowl, turn your mixer up to medium and let it knead for at least 3 minutes.
Your dough should be completely pulled away from the sides of the bowl and should make a slapping sound against the bowl. If it’s not at this stage and is still too wet, add another couple tablespoons of flour and mix more - it will still be sticky, but should not be stuck to all sides of the bowl.
Prepare a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of melted butter or neutral oil - use your hand to oil up around the sides of the bowl.
Plop your dough into the bowl (this is easiest with a flexible bench scraper) and cover with plastic wrap and a towel and place in your warmed oven. (Make sure the oven is warm, but not hot.) Let rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes to an hour.
Once your dough is out of the oven, preheat to 375 degrees F. Prepare a muffin tin with muffin cups.
Dust flour onto a large cutting board or clean countertop and empty your dough onto it. Flour your rolling pin and roll the dough into a large rectangular shape - about ½ inch thick. Then, use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 4 long strips. Then cut each strip into even squares, you’ll probably get around 6-8 on each strip. Cut each square into fours to make about 1 inch by 1 inch squares.
Mix together your cinnamon sugar coating and toss each of your dough squares in it, one handful at a time. Add a few dough squares in each muffin cup, roughly 5 squares in each cup. Add any remaining cinnamon sugar on top of your muffins.
Bake in the middle rack for 18-20 minutes, until golden brown on top & cooked through. Let cool for at least 10 minutes.
Make your frosting & assemble
Mix the powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla until a smooth, thick frosting forms. You want this to be thick, but still drizzle-able.
Frost each of your muffins with a generous amount of frosting and enjoy! Store in an airtight container on your counter. These stay good for a few days, but will firm up just a little. For maximum enjoyment, heat up your muffin in the microwave for about 15 seconds before serving.
Notes
This recipe yields about 24 muffins. I only have one muffin tin, so I baked these in batches. The dough squares can rest on your work surface while the first batch is baking. Or, if you don’t have a muffin tin or just don’t want to fuss with it, feel free to bake this in a 13x9 dish all at once to make a pull-apart casserole! Coat the dough squares in the cinnamon sugar and place them all in the dish, overlapping each other - your bake time may be just a little longer, just keep an eye on it and bake until golden brown on top.
If you don’t have a rolling pin, no problem! I’ve used so many random beer bottles over the years - you can basically makeshift any cylindrical bottle into your rolling pin.
I know this recipe sounds like a lot of ingredients/work - this is definitely a little more complex than a one-bowl dessert. I do promise you, however, that the process is FUN and yields an extra delicious result. BUT if you just aren’t feeling up to making your own dough yet, you can always take the quicker route and use canned biscuit dough. Cut into squares and coat with your cinni-sugar and bake according to the directions on your biscuit can.