Sometimes recipes are more than just recipes. To me, my mom’s monkey bread is comfort, love, home, safety and holiday magic. It’s a sticky-sweet, buttery, nostalgic reminder of Christmas morning and one of our family’s most cherished recipes.
One of my loose goals as a mother is to create memorable moments for my children that bring forth warm and fuzzy feelings of nostalgia as they get older and think back on their childhood. My biggest prayer every night is one of gratitude for my family and our health and happiness. If Ryan and I can create an environment in our house that fills our boys’ hearts with a feeling of safety, comfort, unconditional love and the occasional simple-but-meaningful memories, it is my hope that their biggest prayer as they get older will be one of gratitude as well.
It may sound ridiculous, but my mom’s monkey bread is one of those small-but-memorable holiday traditions that may not seem like a big deal on the outside but as I get older, I realize the consistency of my mother serving this sweet, buttery, pull-apart holiday favorite meant a whole lot more to me as a kid than the gifts under the tree.
The smell that filled the house when I awoke on Christmas morning as a child was a mixture of brown sugar, fluffy biscuits and butter. Knowing I’d be diving into one of my all-time favorite sticky-sweet breakfast dishes as I sorted through my Christmas stocking only added to the holiday magic for me.
Fast forward several decades and my mom still makes her monkey bread every year. Now, even though the excitement of digging through a Christmas stocking has waned a bit, the feeling of holiday magic is still there — though now it looks like a more a poignant understanding of how incredibly blessed my sister and I are to have parents who poured so much love into our childhood home… and into monkey bread!
I’ve been meaning to share this recipe on my blog for years and years. It’s one of those recipes that is very close to my heart for sentimental reasons and if you decide to make it, I hope it adds to the holiday magic in your house. It’s a recipe that means a lot to our family not because it’s fancy or intense or hard to make but because of the memories and the warm and cozy feeling of family, closeness and Christmas it brings to us. I hope it does the same for you!
Here’s what you need to make my mom’s monkey bread:
- Butter: Salted or unsalted will work but we’re a big fan of salted to combat some of the sweetness.
- Brown sugar: Thank you to brown sugar for creating that sticky-sweet, drippy caramel that has us licking the pan clean every time.
- Water: Simple enough!
- Refrigerated biscuits: No need to do the homemade thing with this recipe! My mom swears by the 16 ounce-size Pillsbury Grands Homestyle Biscuits that come in a can but any biscuits will work.
- Chopped pecans: These are optional but I loveee them! My mom usually makes her monkey bread with the pecans on one half and no nuts on the other half since we’re a house divided on the nut front!
Please let me know if you decide to give this recipe a try and know that when you take your first bite, a lot of love went into this recipe. And I truly hope you can feel some of the love and appreciation I have for all of you this holiday season when you dig in!
My Mom’s Monkey Bread
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My Mom’s Monkey Bread
Description
Sometimes recipes are more than just recipes. To me, my mom’s monkey bread is comfort, love, home, safety and holiday magic. It’s a sticky-sweet, buttery, nostalgic reminder of Christmas morning and one of our family’s most cherished recipes.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter + 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 cans refrigerated biscuits (the 16 ounce-size Pillsbury Grands Homestyle Biscuits are my mom’s go-to!)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place 2 tablespoons butter in the bottom of a 12-cup fluted tube pan and heat in the oven until the butter melts. Swirl the butter around to coat the pan and set aside.
- Melt 1/2 cup butter in a small pot and add in the brown sugar. Add in the water and heat to just boiling and stir constantly.
- If using the pecans, sprinkle half of the nuts in the bottom of the pan. Add a drizzle of the brown sugar mixture to the bottom of the pan. Quarter the biscuits and arrange half of them in the bottom of the pan on top of brown sugar (and on top of the nuts, if using). Spoon half of the remaining brown sugar mixture over the biscuits. (Add remaining chopped pecans, if using.) Add remaining biscuits and top with the rest of the brown sugar mixture.
- Bake for 25 minutes. Cool for 3-5 minutes and then invert the monkey bread on a platter to serve. Enjoy!
More of Our Family’s Treasured Holiday Recipes to Try
- Holiday Cheese Puff Casserole (My mom served paired this make-ahead recipe with the above monkey bread every Christmas morning!)
- My Mom’s Stuffing Recipe
- Mimi’s Sugar Cookies (My grandmother’s giant, fluffy sugar cookie recipe)
- Bubbee’s Glazed Carrots
- Diane’s Pineapple Soufflé
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Know of any ways this could be made gluten,dairy,soy,egg, and all nut free?
Try searching for paleo (add “nut free” to the search) or AIP monkey bread recipes. Autoimmune protocol recipes exclude all those ingredients, and you may find a paleo one that doesn’t use almond flour.
We love monkey bread but use vanilla ice cream, not water. Melt half cup ice cream with butter and brown sugar to make a creamy caramel.
oh my gosh that sounds unreal!!!!
There’s nothing like Mom’s baking! Thanks for sharing.
Would you be interested in making a giftable holiday treats roundup post (holiday pretzels, puppy chow, etc.), even if for next year?
I love this idea so much! YES! It may be next year just because of timing this year with the move and everything but I love it! Thanks for the inspiration, Nikki!
If this is as yummy as your mom’s stuffing I am in!! My favorite memories of my mom is at Christmas as well “helping” her make cookies!
So glad to hear you enjoyed my mom’s stuffing so much!!!! And this one is every bit as good but in a totally different (super sweet!) way!
My mom has made this every Christmas since I’ve been born and her mom before that.
I swear it’s like Christmas on a plate!!!
Funny thing, I asked my now 15, 14, and 11 year old boys what they wanted to do, see and make for Christmas this year. Everything We did with them when they were young, gingerbread houses, cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, hot cocoa watching movies, making peppermint Pattie’s was everything they said they wanted for Christmas. Keep making your monkey bread and all the other things you do to make Christmas special for your boys.
I love that, Rene. I really hope things like this stick with our boys the way they have truly stuck with me over the years. <3
This looks delicious! Is there any way to premake the day before do you think?
Hey Julie! I have enjoyed so many of your recipes, but this one was a miss. I do a fair amount of baking and followed your directions, but the inside was mostly raw, so we could only eat a few of the outer pieces. I looked up some other recipes afterwards and they say to bake anywhere from 30-40 minutes. So I think the bake time needs increased. The flavor was delicious. Hope this helps someone else avoid a raw baked good!
I made this for my family this morning for Christmas. It was delicious! I didn’t think there was enough caramel as I was making it, but when it was done it was perfect! 25 minutes was perfect, not underbaked and not over baked. I’m eating some leftovers with vanilla ice cream right now and it’s delicious this way too – like bread pudding!
I made this today for my family on Christmas morning. It wasn’t overly complicated, didn’t take me away from the kids for too long, and was a huge hit. We’ll be sure to make this on Christmas morning from now on