This easy Apple Fritter Monkey Bread is the ultimate fall treat! Fluffy pull-apart bread is layered with warm cinnamon apples for a fun and irresistible treat!
An Easy Monkey Bread Recipe for Fall
When it comes to shareable treats, you simply can’t go wrong with monkey bread! This apple fritter version is perfect for fall. The bread is soft, delicious and coated in brown sugar while the cinnamon apples add tons of autumn flavor.
This pull-apart bread is great for a sweet treat or a fancy Thanksgiving breakfast. Anyone who likes apples and cinnamon will fall in love with this treat! It’s also super easy to prepare. This recipe uses refrigerated biscuit dough so it’s perfect for when you’re short on time, but still want to enjoy homemade monkey bread.
Recipe Ingredients
This monkey bread is easy to make with only a few ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. Here’s what you’ll need:
For the Cinnamon Apple Layers
- Apples: I recommend using Granny Smith or Fuji apples for your monkey bread. Peel them, core them and dice them up.
- Brown Sugar: I used light brown, but dark brown would be fine too.
- Cinnamon
For the Monkey Bread
- Sugar
- Ground Cinnamon
- Biscuit Dough: I used Pillsbury, but any refrigerated biscuit dough will do!
- Butter: You’ll need to melt down some butter for this recipe.
- Brown Sugar
- Vanilla Extract
What Kinds of Apples to Use
The reason I recommend Fuji or Granny Smith apples is because they’re on the tart side when it comes to apples. This is important because you’re coating the apples in brown sugar and cinnamon. Even if you have a major sugar tooth like me you’ll get sugar overload if you use a sweeter apple in this recipe. Plus, I like the contrast between the sweet coating on the apple and the subtle tartness you get when you bite into each piece of apple.
Do I Need to Peel the Apples?
You’re going to want to peel and core your apples for this recipe. When you bake apples with the skin on them, it can separate from the apples during the baking process. This can leave you with loose apple skins in your monkey bread. Plus, it can just be a little more chewy. Make sure you peel them to keep that from happening.
How to Make Apple Fritter Monkey Bread
- Prepare for Baking: Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 12-cup fluted tube pan or bundt pan with baking spray.
- Make Cinnamon Apples: Combine the prepared apples, brown sugar and cinnamon and toss together. Add about 1/3 of the apples to the pan. Set the rest aside.
- Make Cinnamon Sugar for Bread: Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Cut Biscuit Dough: Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.
- Coat Biscuits with Cinnamon Sugar: Melt 1/2 a cup of the butter. Dip each biscuit piece into the melted butter and shake off the excess, then coat it well with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
- Layer Biscuits & Apples: Add the biscuit pieces to the prepared pan. Alternate adding the biscuit pieces and cinnamon apples, about 1/3 at a time. You should have three layers of the apples and three layers of the biscuits.
- Add Buttery Topping: Combine the remaining 6 tablespoons of melted butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract and pour evenly over the top of the biscuits in the pan.
- Bake: Bake for 45-55 minutes or until golden and no longer doughy.
- Let Cool & Serve: Let your monkey bread cool for 15-20 minutes in the pan, then invert it onto a plate. Serve warm and enjoy!
Tips for the Best Apple Monkey Bread
- Anticipate Dripping: Because there’s so much moisture in this monkey bread, your pan might overflow a bit while it’s baking. Place a cookie sheet on the rack below your bundt pan to catch any drips!
- Use a Rimmed Plate: It’s best to serve this bread on a plate with a rim or raised edges to keep any excess moisture on the plate.
- Grease Pan Well: Grease your bundt pan generously so it’s easy to remove your baked monkey bread.
How to Eat Monkey Bread
There are endless ways to enjoy this pull-apart bread. Complete your treat by serving it with one of these tasty drinks:
- Coffee: Serve your apple monkey bread with a classic cup of joe.
- Tea: Grab a kettle while your bread is cooling and serve it with a hot cup of tea. What’s more comforting on a cold day than tea and cinnamon?
- Milk: A cold glass of milk is always nice to sip with this monkey bread.
- Hot Chocolate: Make this warm fall dessert even cozier with a big mug of hot chocolate.
How to Store Homemade Monkey Bread
If you have leftover monkey bread, store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Within 2 days, reheat your leftovers in the oven or microwave until warm and enjoy!
More Apple Dessert Recipes
- Apple Cinnamon Cheesecake
- Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
- Apple Cinnamon Skillet Blondie
- Cinnamon Apple Icebox Cake
- Cinnamon Apple Layer Cake
Watch How To Make It
Apple Fritter Monkey Bread
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This easy Apple Fritter Monkey Bread is the ultimate Fall dessert recipe! Fluffy pull-apart bread is layered with warm cinnamon apples for a fun and yummy treat.
Ingredients
Cinnamon Apples
- 2 apples (Fuji or Granny Smith) peeled, cored and diced into small pieces
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Monkey Bread
- 1 1/4 cups (259g) sugar
- 3 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 cans (16.3 oz each) refrigerated biscuit dough (such as Pillsbury)
- 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp salted butter, melted, divided
- 1/2 cup (113g) packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 12-cup fluted tube pan or bundt pan with baking spray.
- Combine the apples, brown sugar and cinnamon and toss together. Add about 1/3 of the apples to the pan. Set the rest aside.
- Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.
- Melt 1/2 a cup of the butter. Dip each biscuit piece into the melted butter and shake off the excess, then coat it well in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
- Add the biscuit pieces to the prepared pan. Alternate adding the biscuit pieces and cinnamon apples, about 1/3 at a time. You should have three layers of the apples and three layers of the biscuits.
- Combine the remaining 6 tablespoons of melted butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract and pour evenly over the top of the biscuits in the pan.
- Bake 45-55 minutes or until golden and it isn’t doughy anymore. There’s quite a bit of moisture in the pan, so you may want to place a cookie sheet on the rack underneath to catch anything that might drip over.
- Let cool for 15-20 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a plate. I recommend one with a raised edge so that the moisture from the bread doesn’t drip everywhere. Serve monkey bread warm and enjoy!
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 912
- Sugar: 72.9 g
- Sodium: 1802.2 mg
- Fat: 40.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 133 g
- Protein: 9.8 g
- Cholesterol: 61 mg
Hi, do you think it would be ok to half the recipe?
Sure, as long as you have a smaller pan, or maybe don’t mind it being very tall? You’d want to bake it less time too.
Recipe was easy to follow and turned out great. My family enjoyed it very much! My husband told me I need to open a restaurant 🤣🤣 Thank you!!!
lol! So glad it was a hit!
A delicious disaster! I cooked for 45 minutes because my convection oven tends to burn biscuits. When I went to flip it over there was more juice than anticipated. The whole thing fell apart, leaked everywhere, and the middle biscuits were still raw. So I thought, what the hell, just put it on a cookie sheet and hit broil for 2 minutes! DO NOT be dumb and try this! I mean it worked, the biscuits are cooked now, but I filled the whole house with smoke on X-mas morning. Ooofda! All in all the taste is 10 out of 10, great recipie! Be sure to cook the extra few minutes and let cool completely though!
Oh no! I’m sorry that happened! I’m glad you were still able to enjoy it though.
Soo good and easy to make!! Love it tastes like fall
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hi can I make this with apple pie filling and how do I cut the ingredients to fit 9″ round pie pans? Please let me know as soon as possible. I would like to make this for a fundraiser at my club.
I haven’t tested it that way, so it’s really hard for me to say
Could you add pecans? Or will they burn?
You could add pecans.
I’ve made this twice now using instant hot apple cider drink packets to amp up the apple flavor. I add about half a packet to the apple mixture and half to the sugar mixture for the biscuit pieces. Then I use another packet melted in some hot milk and mixed with powdered sugar to make an apple cider glaze to pour over at the end. Maximum Apple fritter flavor achieved!
Yum! Glad you’re enjoying them!
Looking to make for large group at work. Have you used a 9×13 and had same results?
I haven’t tried it in a 9 x 13 but I think it would be fine. You may not need to make it for as long though.
Making this for the first time! Super easy, very excited to see how it turns out. Thank you! Looks delicious.
Can you prepare it the night before and then cook it the next morning?
I haven’t tried it, but it’d probably be fine.
Can I use cinnamon rolls instead of biscuits
Sounds delicious!
Would you be able to make this the day before and warm it up?
It might be tough to warm it up without drying it out, but you could give it a try. Maybe loosely cover it with foil and heat it on a low setting in the oven?
Looks delicious, what can use instead of Pillsbury biscuit dough, and make it GF?
Or maybe I can use an other biscuit dough?
Thank you .
I haven’t tested it with another kind of biscuit dough, but you could certainly give it a try. I’d think other brands would be fine.
Could this be made with frozen Rhodes rolls?
I’m not sure. I haven’t tried that before, but I’ve seen similar things done before. You could try it.
I bet this would be stellar with some vanilla ice cream 🙂 And maybe some maple syrup drizzled over-top…
Do you have a homemade recipe for the monkey bread. I don’t like to use any pre- made pastry if I can help it.
I don’t currently.