What happens when you take the warm, spiced perfection of a classic homemade apple pie and fuse it with the soft, pull-apart joy of monkey bread? Absolute pure magic.
I set out to test this cozy flavor mashup in my kitchen, and let me tell you: the result was beyond my wildest expectations. The bread turned out unbelievably moist, tender, and absolutely bursting with autumn spices and tender apples in every single bite. If you love warm cinnamon, gooey brown sugar syrup, and pillow-soft bread, you need to make this recipe immediately!
Why You’ll Fall in Love With This Recipe
- Double the Apple Flavor: Instead of just throwing raw apples into the dough, we cook down fresh apples with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Then, we strain off the liquid and turn that concentrated spiced juice into a rich brown sugar syrup topping!
- Pillow-Soft Scratch Dough: Made with active dry yeast and rich bread flour, this dough rises into light, airy, pull-apart morsels.
- The Cinnamon-Sugar Crunch: Every dough ball gets drenched in melted butter and coated in cinnamon sugar before hitting the Bundt pan.
Pro-Tips for Success
Always Use a Deep-Dish Platter for Serving: When you invert the monkey bread, a lot of warm, bubbly brown sugar apple syrup will cascade out. A shallow plate will overflow, so choose a dish with raised sides!
- Check the Internal Temp: Sweet yeast breads can fool you into thinking they are done on the outside while remaining doughy in the center. Aiming for 190∘F guarantees a tender, fully-cooked loaf.
- Warm Eggs & Water Matter: Ensure your water is near 110∘F (hotter will kill the yeast, cooler will stall it) and your egg is at room temperature so it blends effortlessly into the yeast mixture.
Serve this warm with a cup of hot coffee or spiced cider—it’s guaranteed to disappear off the plate in minutes!
Apple Pie Monkey Bread
Created by Sue Mun
Makes One, 15 Cup Bundt Cake Pan
Ingredients:
For the Apple Pie Filling:
- 3 apples (400g) peeled, cored, diced into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces
- 70g light brown sugar
- 20g butter
- ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
- juice of one lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
- Cornstarch slurry: 1 tbsp cornstarch plus 1 tbsp water
For the Dough:
- 240 grams warm water (110F)
- 25 grams granulated sugar (for feeding the yeast)
- 7 g active dry yeast
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 110 grams unsalted butter, melted
- 495 grams bread flour
- 25 grams granulated sugar
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
For the Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
- 113g unsalted butter
- 200 g granulated sugar
- 10g cinnamon
For the Brown Sugar Apple Syrup Topping:
- 75g melted butter
- 100g brown sugar
- reserved strained apple pie filling syrup
Instructions:
Make the Apple Pie Filling:
- In a medium pot, add in the chopped apples, butter, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and salt. Cook over medium high heat for about 5 minutes or until the apples begin to soften and release its juices. Pour in the cornstarch slurry and stir and cook for another 1 minute until the mixture thickens.
- Once the apple pie filling is cooked, pour the filling over a fine mesh strainer and strain out the excess apple pie filling sauce. Reserve the apple pie sauce syrup for the Brown Sugar Apple Syrup Topping.
Make the Brown Sugar Apple Syrup Topping:
- In a small bowl mix together the 75g melted butter, 100g brown sugar, and all of the reserved strained apple pie sauce syrup together until smooth. Set this aside in the fridge in the meantime. This will be used later in the recipe.
Make the Dough:
- In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), combine warm water (110°F), 25 grams sugar (the first portion), and active dry yeast. Stir gently and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes until the top becomes foamy and bubbly.
- Whisk in the room-temperature egg and melted butter (cooled slightly so it isn’t piping hot) into the activated yeast mixture until thoroughly combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together bread flour, the remaining sugar, and sea salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon or a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook until a shaggy dough forms and no dry flour remains.
- By Stand Mixer: Knead on medium-low speed for 6 to 8 minutes using the dough hook until smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky.
- By Hand: Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead vigorously for 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and supple.
- Lightly oil a clean bowl. Place the dough inside, turning once to coat the surface with oil. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let it rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 60 to 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Shape and Assemble:
- Prepare your cinnamon sugar/butter dipping station. To a small bowl, melt the 113g of unsalted butter. To another small bowl, mix together the 200g sugar and 10g ground cinnamon.
- Spread about a third of the cooked/strained apple pie filling in the bottom of a greased 15 cup Bundt pan.
- Form the Bread: Gently remove the dough from the bowl. Cut and roll into about 1 inch balls. They do not need to be perfect or perfectly round.
- Toss the balls into the melted butter and the toss into the cinnamon sugar. You do not need to do this one ball at a time. You can take 5 balls at a time and toss them in the melted butter and cinnamon sugar to speed up this process.
- Then layer 1/3 of the cinnamon sugar coated dough balls in the Bundt pan.
- Add another 1/3 of the apple pie filling on top. Repeat these steps until you finish it off with the last layer of dough balls.
- Pour the Brown Sugar Apple Syrup over on top of the monkey bread.
- Cover the Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in draft-free area until dough balls are puffy and have risen 1 to 2 inches from top of pan and is puffy. This can take about 30-45 minutes.
- In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350F.
- Unwrap the pan and bake the monkey bread for about 40-50 minutes. (Tip: If the top browns too quickly after 25 minutes, tent loosely with aluminum foil). The internal temperature of the monkey bread should exceed 190F. This is how you know the bread has fully baked.
- Cool the monkey bread at room temperature for about 30 minutes, then turn out onto a deep dish platter and allow to cool slightly. You absolutely should use a deep dish platter in case any of the juices from the monkey bread seeps out. Mine came out syrupy and delicious.
- Serve warm and enjoy!
Overnight Proof/Bake Schedule:
Day 1 (Evening):
- Cook and strain the apple filling completely; store the apples and reserved cider syrup in separate airtight containers in the fridge.
- Make the dough, complete the first rise, assemble the monkey bread in the greased Bundt pan with the buttered cinnamon-sugar coating, apple pie filling layers, and brown sugar apple syrup topping glaze.
- Immediately cover the Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator overnight (for 8 to 12 hours).
Day 2 (Baking Day):
- Remove the pan from the fridge 45–60 minutes before baking. The cold dough needs time to lose its chill and finish rising until puffy (it should fill out the pan and spring back slowly when pressed lightly).
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Bake for 38–45 minutes as directed (cold dough may take 3–5 extra minutes).
