The Secret to Making the Easiest Batch of Monkey Bread

If you liked playing with Play-Doh as a kid, you’d probably like making monkey bread since it requires you to form lots of little balls of dough that then get rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar. That’s the fun part about making monkey bread, but I don’t find making the dough itself all that enjoyable — especially when I want monkey bread fast. That’s where this store-bought staple comes in handy: frozen white bread dough!

When I was a kid, my mom used to buy frozen white bread dough that she’d bake into soft, pillowy sandwich loaves that we slathered with butter. I’ve found this dough in pretty much every large grocery store, especially chain stores, with ease. After a thaw in the refrigerator overnight, the dough is pliable and ready to use straight out of the refrigerator.

By using store-bought bread dough, you don’t need a stand mixer or arm muscles to knead up dough, there’s no yeast to worry about proofing, and the dough is pretty much ready to use when you’re ready to bake monkey bread.

I also like that the bread dough bakes up soft and is so neutral in flavor that it really lets the butter and cinnamon-sugar shine through. Biscuit dough is jus too dense for my tastes when I’m looking for the perfect monkey bread.

Last weekend we decided to have friends over for brunch. Since I had some bread dough in the freezer, monkey bread went on the menu. My 3-year-old daughter got in on the action, rolling the dough with gusto and then devouring the results, and it was a fun morning activity for the family. If I’d had to make the dough from scratch, though, I’m pretty sure monkey bread would not have happened that day.