This berry monkey cinnamon roll bread recipe is incredibly easy, and super delicious. Using cinnamon rolls, this pull-apart bread goes together in a short time! You’ll never need to go back to from-scratch monkey bread once you make this quick and easy cinnamon roll monkey bread! Now, mom can get back to her favorite coffee, and know that breakfast is taken care of.
Berry Monkey Bread Ingredients:
- purchased cinnamon rolls
- fresh berries (we like raspberries and blackberries but use your favorites!
- fresh basil, for serving
Berries are in season! And when berries are in season, we use them in everything. Okay, maybe not everything. But we use them a lot. Because we know we aren’t going to be willing to pay the big bucks for them when winter arrives. And since winter here in Minnesota lasts about 9 months…we have a very limited time to enjoy the low prices of berries.
Although to be honest, sometimes even in the middle of winter we might splurge a little, just so we can make this cinnamon roll monkey bread. It’s SO good, that my kids will ask about it in February. And I’ll spend a little more to make it.
So often, in berry season, I walk into my local bakery and find them using berries in EVERYTHING. It smells so good and always inspires me to get home and try to create a tasty treat, myself. This recipe was born from one of those trips to my bakery. That day they had made some version of their cinnamon rolls, packed the dough full of fresh strawberries, baked it in a bundt pan, and drizzled it with cream cheese icing. I know!!?! I detoured to the grocer and picked up supplies to try my own version…
Berry Monkey Bread Instructions:
- spray a bundt pan with cooking spray
- layer about half of the cinnamon rolls, in chunks
- add a layer of fresh berries
- top with the last layer of the cinnamon rolls
- finish with another layer of fresh berries
- bake according to the cinnamon roll directions.
- top with the included icing, fresh basil, and additional fresh berries
I took some cans of purchased cinnamon rolls, beautiful fresh Driscoll’s berries, and a bundt pan, and created this tasty dish with less than 5 minutes of prep. I’m sure that very little beats the smell and taste of homemade cinnamon rolls but, these surely do come close! This bread has the same freshness from the berries, that lovely drizzle of sweet icing (see my note in the recipe for amping up the icing!), and comforting sweet bread. It’s a winner!
Berry monkey bread is my go-to when people come over unexpectedly (or even if they’re expected) in the morning. The ingredients are easy to keep on hand, and often I have some version of them already available. I have found that frozen berries thawed to room temperature, while not as good as fresh, are a good substitute and much easier to keep on hand! You can also use strawberries or a different fruit if you find it works best for you, as blueberries and raspberries can be difficult to find in certain places.
And, because of how easy it is, this bread has made its way into our favorites list.
You can also make this recipe from scratch, if you so desire and more motivated than I am, by making homemade cinnamon rolls (we love this homemade cinnamon roll recipe from Lizzy T) in place of the packaged ones. If you do this please let us know, I am interested in the difference it might make! I mean, if this dish is delicious with pre-made cinnamon rolls I can only imagine how great they’ll be with homemade.
Why do they call it Monkey bread?
It’s called monkey bread because of the way it’s eaten. The consumer of the bread picks at the bread similar to how a monkey grooms another monkey.
Where does monkey bread come from?
Monkey bread came from California in the 1940s. It was originally served as a savory dish and was popular because it didn’t need utensils to serve. In the 70s the dough began being covered in sweet substances like honey or brown sugar and became what we think of today.
Can you reheat monkey bread?
Yes! We recommend storing it in a fridge if you can’t eat it all and reheating it in the oven the next day. Microwaves will do as well, but we think the taste and texture is best preserved when reheated in an oven.
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Berry Monkey Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cans refrigerated purchased orange rolls (we used Pillsbury Orange Rolls)
- 2 pints berries
- 3 oz softened cream cheese optional
- basil optional (about 3 tablespoons)
Instructions
- Cut up the orange rolls and scatter half of them on the bottom of a greased bunt pan. (we use this one... Nordic Ware Bundt Pan)
- Sprinkle half the berries on top.
- Repeat.
- If desired, press dollups of cream cheese into the dough and berries and sprinkle with fresh basil.
- Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Check on it to make sure it doesn't burn.
- Let it rest briefly, then turn it over and out. Drizzle with the orange spread included in the orange roll cans.
Notes
Click here for video tutorial.
Other fast and easy bread recipes that are must try’s are Parmesan Ranch Pull-Apart bread and Cinnamon Rolls baked in Oranges.
If you have never tried your hand at old-fashioned bread making I recommend taking an afternoon with your family and giving it a try. I have my basic bread recipe with tips and tricks for beginners found HERE. There is something so satisfying about baking a loaf of bread. And the smell when it bakes? Amazing!
Let’s face it, folks, most of us aren’t going to have time to bake bread often. For us, this Berry Monkey bread is perfect! Semi-homemade, easy, with fresh berries to look fancy, and utterly delicious! You’ll be making this for brunch again and again. There is no need to force yourself to make something long and complicated if you don’t want to. And if you do want to, go for it!
If you enjoyed this recipe you might like these…
This is another family favorite. The almond pull-apart bread recipe is simple and it produces a delicious buttery bread with crispy sides and a soft center. The recipe itself is very similar to this one in that it uses pre-made bread, but of course you can make it deliciously homemade.
Parmesan Ranch Pull Apart Bread
Again, this recipe is pretty similar to the one you’re looking at now except it uses biscuits. It’s just three ingredients: ranch, parmesan, and refrigerator biscuits. It’s outrageously simple, tasty, and a great savory version of a pull apart bread!
This marbled rye bread is the recipe you need if you love the classics. This recipe is not as simple as others we have, but makes a beautiful rye bread. It’s still simpler than most bread recipes, just not as simple as pulling some dough out of a package. But I don’t know, maybe you love homemade recipes so much this is exactly what you need!
One of my favorite recipes right here. Turns out great each time!
Me too! They make life easier!
Ohhh this looks amazing! And I’m all about the semi homemade recipes :)
No worries. I keep trying to take myself more seriously and not quite succeeding. When you make cake for a living it’s hard to feel to professional :). I like it though. And I like you.
The reason I read your blog is because you are real, plus I get your self-depracating humor:) You aren’t trying to present yourselves as experts, just ordinary women who like to put spice (no pun intended, ha) into life by not taking yourselves too seriously. Please don’t become too professional or I’ll wonder what happened to my friends!
We haven’t tried it, but we actually think that it will taste even better with frozen berries. Let us know how it turns out!
Can I make this with frozen berries?
That’s okay, it happens :). Yes, our blog is our primary activity. The web design has become an off-shoot of that. I’m glad you found us though :)
Ok Janel. Feeling a little dumb! How is it I didn’t know you had a blog?! These recipes look amazing! Can’t wait to spend some time bopping around your site! Thought you just did web design and had a blog about that. Don’t know how I missed this! Glad I found you!
Again, thank you for the comment. You are right…the contact us is difficult to find. We hadn’t gotten that put back on in an easy to find place after restructuring the site. We will do that right away.Thank you for the head’s up! We are most concerned about being condescending to “newbies”. We certainly don’t mean to come across that way, at all. On this post we certainly don’t see that but perhaps we are just blind to it. We will be careful to watch that and hopefully pick up on what you are seeing. We apologize for ever being anything but gracious and helpful.
Looks almost too good to eat, but I’d eat it! Love the fun in the kitchen! You girls rock :)
I can’t wait to make this!!!! I thought the video was great fun. But maybe Lanet could kneel.
Hi Nellie and Bellie
Thank you for not making every video perfect – I appreciate that so much. It makes me feel that even I could possibly do what you do in the kitchen!
Keep up the good work.
Vyan
Just a heads up on the fact that you do not have to be paid by Phillsbury to be sued. Quite the opposite. You are showing their product in a bad light by not opening it properly, and acting like it is a nightmare to get through the packaging on their product in order to use it. Phillsbury packaging is very easy to get in to. You are making it look so difficult, so you are presenting Phillsbury in a bad way. In your next video remove the outer skin of the tube with the product information on it and write “Buttermilk Biscuts” with a magic marker on the outside of the package. Or you could get written permission from Phillsbury to use their product in your video and they will probably give you free biscuits to do it. If the video is good enough they may even put it on their website. Now wouldn’t that be something?
I really would like to see you be successful. We can empower each other by sharing knowledge and supporting each other. However, there is nothing to be gained by you being condescending to “newbies” on your blog. In a way you are claiming to be experts by posting advice on your blog. Think about that. You can go to hundreds of blogs and you will never see other blogs posting advice the way you have. By doing that simple act you are claiming to be more knowledgeable. As far as the videography, the instruction given to you any dad in the world knows from filming Christmas morning or a day at the beach. It is not difficult. It is basic principles of photography.
I looked for a “contact us” link on your blog to contact you privately because it is not my intention to make you look bad. For that reason you can erase all this if you want to. I think that through networking we can share knowledge and empower each other woman to woman. I want you to succeed by putting your best foot forward and avoiding lawsuits whenever possible. Good luck and many blessings for the future.
Wow. Thank you for taking the time to leave this comment. We don’t claim to be experts. Just everyday people. And, we were not paid in anyway by Pillsbury. So, lawsuits are not a problem. But, thanks for the heads up. We will have to keep those kinds of details in mind. We are certainly not experts in videography and are working to continue getting better. And, better at what we do. Thank you for the feedback and advice…we appreciate it!
I rarely leave comments, just repin if I like them. This recipe looks good, but you two look like idiots in the kitchen. I felt compelled to write since you offer advice here on your site and you don’t even follow your own advice. Not only do you not follow your own advice, the advice you give is condesending. To start you should close up on all of your ingredients, your baking pan, and verbalize the degrees you are setting your oven to so it can preheat while you are assembling your product. You should then follow the package directions to open the biscuts, not stand and wrestle with them. That involves completely peeling off the outside paper and using a spoon for pressure on the seam and they will open right up. You are opening yourself up to a lawsuit by Philsbury by not following their very simple package instructions. You should spray the baking pan or grease it. You should then cut the biscuits in half or quarters and one person assemble while the other does the ingredients preparation. You should not stand there and wrestle the biscuits to pull them apart. You should then pause and do a close up of the neatly assembled product, not run the pan back to the camera and display a mess in the pan. There is no need to talk endlessly, just state the directions as you do them. You did not include the cream cheese in your listed ingredients. You also gave vague written instructions . You then pan the camera back out and finish assembly being sure to show the ending assembled product. This only involves pausing the camera. You then put the product in the oven sharing the degrees and how long to bake. You then pause again until its time to remove from the oven and show baked product. You then pause again while it rests, then start and show you inverting on a plate to remove from baking pan. You then icing the finished product, show again and saying something clever, like “It’s this easy”.
Your finished product will then look professional and you will avoid a lawsuit. I can not believe you previewed this tutorial and aired it since it would not follow your own advice here on you own blog. It’s pitiful. A first I thought bless their hearts they don’t know any better, this is their first video tutorial. Then I read all the condescending helps you wrote for newbies and just about died from laughter. Anyway….. Good luck. And my grandma always rolled her biscuits in a cinnamon and sugar mixture before putting them in the pan. She also used a few pats of butter for a richer flavor. Try this next time and I’m sure you’ll love it. Now don’t you want to take this down and do it better?? Good luck once again because I feel you’ll need it.
I love these ideas. I’m going to make this plus cheese bread.
This recipe was amazing! I made it this morning with strawberries and blueberries. Delicious!
This looks so yummy! Love the fruit idea!