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Gluten Free Monkey Bread is a classic sticky sweet breakfast treat, perfect for a weekend brunch! Plus it’s Dairy Free too!
I am a sucker for a good sweet breakfast…always have been. Hubbyman, he’s a savory breakfast eater. Really it should come to no shock that I love monkey bread…I haven’t met a monkey bread recipe that I didn’t love (check out my previous take on my mom’s monkey bread). So of course, after really learning how to cook with gluten free and dairy free products, I had to give it a shot.
I searched and searched for a good recipe, but just couldn’t seem to find one that was easy, had few ingredients, and tasted good. I saw some strange stuff while I was researching. But, I think I figured out a perfect gluten free, dairy free monkey bread. {I squealed when I had my first bite!}
Don’t be scared by all the ingredients and details for the recipe…it is pretty straight forward. It’s really easy and doesn’t take much time either.
The problem is that this is so amazingly delicious, but not healthy at all! I only make it for holiday morning breakfasts. You could easily prep everything the night before, pop it in the fridge, then bake it off in the morning to keep holiday mornings simple and easy.
Ingredient notes and substitutions:
The ingredients listed show the vegan/dairy free options. However, if you aren’t dairy free/vegan then traditional milk, butter, and sour cream work perfectly too.
- gluten-free flour
- sugar
- baking powder
- salt
- dairy-free butter, cold
- dairy-free milk
- apple cider vinegar
- dairy-free sour cream
- vanilla
- ground cinnamon
- chopped pecans
- brown sugar
- maple syrup
So…..are you a sweet or savory breakfast person?
Gluten Free Monkey Bread
Gluten Free Monkey Bread is a classic sticky sweet breakfast treat, perfect for a weekend brunch! Plus it's Dairy Free too!
Ingredients
Dough:
- 3 cups gluten-free flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup dairy-free butter, cold
- 1/2 cup dairy-free milk PLUS ½ Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup dairy-free sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
Coating:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
The Yummy Goodness:
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup dairy-free butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp vanilla soy milk, or almond milk
- pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and grease a Bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon coating ingredients; whisk to blend; set aside. Then combine milk and vinegar in a small measuring cup or bowl; stir and set aside (essentially you are making a dairy free buttermilk).
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; whisk lightly to blend. Cut cold butter into cubes and add to the dry ingredients. Cut in with fork or pastry blender until butter is pea-sized or smaller.
- Add sour cream and mix lightly. Then add vanilla and milk/vinegar mixture; stir with spoon until dough is uniform. It will be soft and sticky.
- Use a cookie scoop (or with moistened hands), scoop dough in tablespoon-sized portions, roll gently into ball shape, give each dough ball a good roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture, then place in the prepared pan. Make a full circle in the bottom of the pan, then begin again with another circle, filling the pan evenly with dough balls. Sprinkle and leftover cinnamon/sugar coating over the top of the dough in the baking pan.
To make the yummy goodness:
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Stir in the brown sugar, maple syrup, salt & vanilla. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the vanilla soy (or almond) milk and pecans. Pour mixture over the top of the dough.
- Freeze or Bake the dough at this point.
To bake immediately:
- Allow the dough to rise for 20 minutes in a warm, draft-free place.
- Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes. Allow Monkey Bread to sit in the baking pan for about 5 minutes before turning it out onto a serving dish or plate. To do this, place the plate upside down on top of the baking pan, and (while wearing oven mitts), quickly turn the plate and baking pan upside down. Your Monkey Bread should release from the pan without a problem. Let bread cool an additional 10 minutes before serving to allow the syrup to cool.
Preparing from Frozen:
- Remove your baking pan from the freezer and place it in the refrigerator the night before. Let dough rise for 20 minutes while the oven preheats and has doubled in size. Bake as mentioned above.
- Notes: If you aren't dairy free, just use traditional butter and milk in the recipe...it will work great!
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 446Total Fat: 21gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 42mgSodium: 374mgCarbohydrates: 61gFiber: 2gSugar: 35gProtein: 5g
This nutritional information is an estimate may vary, depending on brand and type of ingredients used. It is not intended to replace the advice of a licensed dietician or physician.
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Dairy free sour cream is pretty hard to find around here, can I substitute with something else or leave out?
Hi Megan, If you don’t need to be dairy free then just use regular sour cream. Otherwise, I’d try dairy free plain yogurt…those seem to be more available. w-
Have you ever made your own flour blend?
If so, what flours & amounts have you used?
Hi Nick. This is my homemade gluten free flour. https://www.aroundmyfamilytable.com/the-best-gluten-free-flour-blend/
w-
Hi Wendy,
Do you think Walmart’s Great Value all purpose flour will be good in this cake?
Sorry, if someone else has already asked this before me…
Thanks 🙂
Hi. Walmart’s all purpose flour isn’t gluten free, so if you need it to be GF then you will need a GF flour. If you just want to make them regular, yes you can use Walmart’s AP flour. w-
This recipe was absolutely amazing! It was moist and just oh-so delicious!
When making the yummy goodness, when do you add the first 3 ingredients (pecans, sugar, cinnamon)? The instructions start at the butter…. Thanks.
Oh my goodness! I’ve had a few recipes that have dropped ingredients and steps when I moved to a new recipe template. I’ll get that fixed ASAP. Thanks for letting me know. w-
Can anyone recommend their favorite gluten free flour for this recipe?
Hi Tammy! I like Glutino, King Arthur, and Living NOW gluten free flour blends. w-
I used this product mix called chebe. It’s for making cheesy rolls. However I just used the mix as flour and added Pillsbury gluten free flour to equal the rest equaling 3 cups total. It turned out great! Yummy! But I do think I would cut corn on the cinnamon sugar mixture and the brown sugar gooey mix by at least a 1/4 even up to 1/3. It’s over the top!
Just curious- Is this recipe supposed to have yeast in it? You mention letting it rise… Maybe you get a little rise from the apple cider vinegar? It looks yummy! Just hoping the recipe is correct as written- it’ in the oven now!
I seriously cannot thank you enough. I just made this recipe for practice for Easter and it was amazing. My sister and I have bought cinnamon buns from many bakeries and we just don’t like them and they don’t taste how we remember. I cannot even believe how delicious his recipe was and how it tasted like little cinnamon buns! For me it took 32 mins for it to cook perfectly. I was wondering for more people I want to double the batch. Have you ever done this? I didn’t know if I should make two or if I could double it and then I wasn’t sure about the cooking time.
Thanks Lauren! So glad y’all love these as much as I do. I have never doubled it, but I would have it cook longer (start at 35 mins and go up from there). Let me know if you do and how it turns out. ~wendy
Wendy! In the ingredients for the dough, it says 1 tbl baking powder. Is that a…tablespoon? I’m not familiar with that abbreviation, and I assumed it was tablespoon, but then thought that maybe sounded like a lot.
I just put this together with my daughter for tomorrow morning. Excited to taste it! 🙂
A couple of questions re: recipe….
1. In the ingredients list, it lists 1 tsp. vanilla in the list for the dough. However in the instructions, it does not list to add the vanilla anywhere. Is that a typo in the ingredient list or the instructions? I omitted it all together in the dough part.
2. In the ingredients list for the yummy goodness it lists granulated sugar and cinnamon. But, those items are not included in the instructions. Again, not sure where the typo is. I did use them both in the yummy goodness. 🙂
Thanks for the clarification! 🙂
Going to try making this tomorrow for my gluten free kiddos. I’ve never had a dough rise without yeast. So, I’m curious: What is it that allows the dough to rise?
Yes, I had the same questions. We left out the vanilla in the dough and extra granulated sugar in the goodness. The raw version tastes DELICIOUS, so I’m thinking it’ll be fine : ))
We used Pamela’s pancake mix, for what it’s worth.
Love that you used Pamela’s pancake mix…brilliant idea. I fixed the instructions to include the vanilla. 🙂
Hi there! After making this, I have these same exact questions and would love to know for future reference. Thanks for a great recipe!
Sorry about that…the recipe is updated. Enjoy! w-
Could this be “baked” in the crockpot instead of in the oven? Excited to try it for Christmas morning!
Hi Jen! I bet it could, it’s something I’ve been wanting to try! Let me know if you try it and how it works out. ~wendy
Question:
If I use almond milk in this recipe, then in the dough part, do I still need to use apple cider vinegar?
Comment:
I have cut out an enormous amount of gluten and sugar in my family’s diet in the past year. I have made monkey bread for Christmas morning for years now and I was bummed that I might not be able to keep that tradition this year. I am so glad to have found this recipe! Excited to try it. I’m going to substitute Stevia for the sugar, use almond milk, regular butter and regular sour cream. Hope it turns out! 🙂
Hi Jen, I use the cider vinegar to create a fake buttermilk flavor…so it’s really up to you if you want to do it. I think you should, but if you don’t have any around then just skip it.
Let me know how it works for you. I’m so glad you are still able to have your favorite Christmas morning breakfast. This is what I make every Christmas and Easter for breakfast so I had to adapt my old recipe so that I could eat. Enjoy!
My mom usually makes monkey bread for breakfast Christmas morning but has found out this year she must be gluten free. So I am going to attempt to make this for a surprise this year. 😉 Curious what kind of gluten free flour you use? There seem to be several different kinds… thanks!
I wanted to try this recipe since I’m gluten free. But I’m not dairy free, so if I just use regular milk and butter and whatnot will it still turn out the same? Will I need to adjust anything?
Oops I hadn’t read to the end yet! I have my answer :3
LOL Allie! Glad you got your question answered in the post. 🙂 Enjoy!
Personally, I’m more of a savory breakfast kinda girl — um, biscuits and gravy? Omelettes? Bacon? Yes please! But I DEF wouldn’t pass up a glistening, sticky monkey bread like this! Looks PHENOM.
Never tried monkey bread before but I think this recipe has convinced me!
Warm, gooey, and absolutely delicious… what more could you want for breakfast? 🙂 Looks awesome and yummy! Pinned this to a Gluten Free board I’m on!
I totally need to make monkey bread this weekend after seeing this! I love your gluten-free recipes; we don’t do GF here, ourselves, but my cousin does and I email them to her. 🙂
This looks so delicious. I LOVE making homemade monkey bread.
Monkey Bread is a favorite of mine and I am very excited that this is gluten-free… thank you so much
Yum! We love monkey bread! What a fantastic recipe
I’ve never monkey bread before, but this looks really good!
Wow Wendy! This looks so good! I wish I could have some now!
How wonderful! I don’t personally have any diet restrictions, but I know how hard it is to come across a good gluten free bread recipe, much less one turned into a dessert! Great recipe!
Yum! I love monkey bread!
I love monkey bread and now I have a yummy treat that I can serve my gluten free friends. Thanks!
It’s been too long since I have had monkey bread! This looks like a delicious recipe!!
Ooh, that looks delicious! I hadn’t seen a gluten free recipe for Monkey Bread before. Thanks for sharing, will have to try!
I love monkey bread! I’ve never tried anything gluten-free but it looks worth having!
I love to dish this up for Sunday Brunch.. thanks for another great recipe… I like to add Blueberries or Raspberries to mine.. YUMM.. sure looks delicious..
My daughter would love this. She is always complaining about how being gluten free makes her always have to eat healthy, lol. This would be a nice treat.
I’ve never tried this before. But, it looks so tasty. WOW. YUM.
Ah Monkey Bread, how I love you (but my waistline hates you).
I am always astounded at how many things can be made gluten-free! I bet this tastes amazing, because it looks delicious!
oh my gosh, this is perfect!! I’m printing this one off, while I wipe the drool off my keyboard, obviously! 😉
That does sound good! I haven’t had monkey bread in a long time.
I love monkey bread and trying to reduce gluten hasn’t helped in satisfying my craving here. So this is especially awesome!
Wow this looks incredibly delicious and easy too!