My Favorite Egg-Free Monkey Bread Recipe from Scratch
A completely Homemade Eggless Monkey Bread recipe – no canned biscuit dough here! In my opinion, nothing compares to the flavor of homemade, and you’ll be surprised how quickly the dough comes together. The homemade eggless brioche-like dough is rolled into balls, dipped in melted butter and cinnamon sugar, then baked until bubbling and glazed to perfection. It’s delicious warm from the oven or sliced and heated after it’s cooled. Monkey bread is served pull-apart style, where everyone tears off a piece. Each bite tastes like the sticky, delicious center of cinnamon rolls…YUM – I promise you’ll be licking your fingers clean and grabbing more and more bites!
Step 2 – First Rise
Cover and let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 – 2 hours, or until double in size. You’ll need:
Ingredients Notes & Substitutions
For the Dough:
Flour: Standard all-purpose flour works best here. Make sure to measure it accurately, so your bread doesn’t end up too dense. Yeast: I recommend and use instant yeast since it doesn’t need to be activated; just mix it with the dry ingredients. Sugar: Regular white granulated sugar o caster sugar. I do not recommend reducing the amount of sugar or changing the type of sugar, as it will change the texture of the monkey bread. Salt: I prefer kosher or sea salt. If you only have table salt handy, I recommend reducing the amount to half. Custard powder: Instead of custard powder, you can use golden flaxseed meal or evaporated milk. Flaxseed: Mix 2 tablespoons of flaxseed with 6 tablespoons of water. Let it rest for 5 minutes to thicken. Add the mixture in step 2 instead of the custard powder. If using flaxseed, skip the 4 tablespoons of water. Evaporated milk: Skip the custard powder and use 4 tablespoons (60 ml) of evaporated milk instead. If using evaporated milk, skip the 4 tablespoons of water. Milk: For baking, I like to use whole milk. However, you can use any milk you have handy. Butter: I prefer to use unsalted butter, but if you only have salted butter handy, you can use it. In this case, skip the salt called in the recipe.
For the Coating: You’ll need butter (unsalted butter preferably), granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, brown sugar, and vanilla extract.
Step By Step Recipe Photo Tutorial
Step 1 – Make the Egg-Free Bread Dough
Mix flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a bowl. In a mixing bowl, combine warm milk, custard powder, water, and melted butter. Add the milk mixture to the bowl with the flour mixture. Knead until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is no longer sticky.
Oriana’s Tip: To know if the dough is well kneaded, the dough must be not too sticky, not too dry, and not too springy. If your dough feels tight and springy, continue kneading until the dough is completely smooth, slightly tacky to the touch, springs back when pressed on with your fingers, and is no longer sticky. You can also test it with the windowpane test: To do so, pull off a golf-ball-sized piece of dough and stretch it gently from the center outward with your fingertips. If it tears, keep kneading. It should stretch into a paper-thin film, and you should be able to see the light pass through it, like a window.
Step 3 – Form the Balls
When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Lightly sprinkle the counter with 2 tablespoons of flour. Carefully turn out the dough onto the flour; gently pat and stretch the dough into a rectangle. Using a bread scraper, pizza wheel, or knife, cut the dough as a grid. Roll each dough piece into a ball.
Step 4 – Assemble the Monkey Bread
Melt butter in a medium bowl. Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon together in another medium bowl. Dip each ball, one by one, in the melted butter and then generously roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat them. Place balls in the prepared Bundt pan as you work. Loosely cover and let rise for 20 – 30 minutes.
Step 5 – Prepare the Coating
Melt the remaining butter, then whisk in the brown sugar and vanilla extract. After the second rising time is over, pour the brown sugar topping over the monkey bread.
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Oriana’s Tip: To know if my bread is done baking, I like to use a thermometer to check if my bread is fully baked. Introduce the thermometer to the middle of the bread, and if it reads a temperature of 190° F (87º C) at the center, it’s fully baked but still soft and moist. If a thermometer is not an option, you can also use a long wooden skewer and pierce through the center of the bread, making sure my skewer doesn’t come out doughy. If you don’t have a Bundt pan, you can half the recipe and bake it in a loaf pan. Do not allow the bread to cool in the pan for longer than 5 minutes; the sticky glaze will start to solidify, and the bread may break when you try to turn it out. Reheat: Reheat leftovers in a 300º F oven until warmed through, about 5 – 8 minutes, or in the microwave for 15 – 30 sec. Freeze: Prepare the dough as instructed in the recipe and let it rise. After the dough rises, punch it down to release the air, then roll it into small balls. Do not coat the balls. Place shaped dough balls on a baking tray, and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. Once the dough balls are cold, they won’t stick together. Place the cooled balls in a freezer bag or freezer-friendly container, then freeze them for up to 2 months. When ready to assemble, thaw the dough balls in the refrigerator or at room temperature, prepare the coating and baking pan, then coat the dough balls as instructed in the recipe. Continue with the recipe.
Recipe Card 📖
You’ve asked, and I’ve answered! Read on for a handful of answers to the most frequently asked questions about eggless baking. Originally posted in December 2020, the post content was edited to add more helpful information, with no change to the recipe in September 2022.
