Caramel Pecan Monkey Bread

This simple Caramel Monkey Bread is soft, chewy, and smothered in sticky brown sugar pecan caramel. It’s an easy breakfast that’s perfect for serving for holiday brunch or a lazy weekend morning.

To make things easy, we use Pillsbury biscuit dough that just needs to be cut up and tossed in cinnamon sugar before adding to the baking mold. If you love monkey bread, you can also try our Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread, Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread, or this savory Pizza Monkey Bread.

Caramel Monkey Bread

This gooey caramel monkey bread tastes like gooey bites of fluffy cinnamon rolls drenched in buttery caramel goodness. It’s full of caramelized pecans in each and every glorious bite.  Wowza!  Plus, this sweet treat couldn’t be simpler to put together, thanks to our secret ingredient: refrigerated biscuit dough. 

This easy monkey bread is so quick to throw together that it makes a great lazy Saturday morning breakfast at home, but it’s also perfect for Christmas or Easter morning brunch.  Once you make this recipe, you’ll understand why it is one of our most requested family favorites. 

If you want to make your monkey bread from scratch, you can. In fact, our Caramel Cinnamon Roll dough doubles as an excellent monkey bread dough!  But most mornings, let’s get real.  We don’t want to wait any longer than we have to.  

What To Serve With Caramel Monkey Bread

This monkey bread goes great with just about any other sweet or savory breakfast foods.  On the savory side, try pairing with our Spinach and Feta Quiche, Sausage Biscuit Casserole, Bacon or Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole.  Any type of hash browned potatoes, sausages or eggs would taste great, too.

If it is part of a whole brunch spread, you could pair it with other sweet breakfast dishes like Apple French Toast Bake or Einkorn Buttermilk Pancakes.  

Also, if you want to go super desserty, we wouldn’t tell if you served this with vanilla ice cream, extra caramel sauce, and whipped cream.

Key Ingredients

• Refrigerated Biscuits – you can use any brand of refrigerated, canned biscuit dough.  Personally I like the Pillsbury Grands brand which you can find at just about any grocery store.
• Cinnamon – any kind of ground cinnamon will work.  This would also taste great with a pinch of cardamom added to the cinnamon.
• Butter – unsalted butter will taste best in this recipe, but if you use salted you can just reduce the additional salt slightly.
• Brown Sugar – either light brown sugar or dark brown sugar will work great for the caramel sauce. It adds a rich flavor that tastes great with pecans.
• Cream – you will need to use heavy cream to make the caramel sauce. It needs a higher fat content so substituting milk or half and half won’t work!
• Pecans – you will be chopping these up so buying pecan pieces will save you a little money and a little prep! Otherwise just chop up the pecan halves before making. If you want to try another nut, walnuts would work great.

How to Make Monkey Bread with Biscuits

1. Prep the dough. Open and separate the biscuit dough cans, then cut each biscuit into four pieces.  Roll them in cinnamon sugar, then transfer to a separate large bowl and continue until all of the biscuit pieces are covered.
2. Make the pecan caramel. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the brown sugar, cream, and salt and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract and pecans.  Stir to combine. Cool slightly, then pour over the biscuits and gently toss. Place in a lightly greased bundt pan.
3. Bake. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 30-35 minutes (Note: if you use a dark bundt pan, you may need to bake for an extra 5-10 minutes), or until the edges are golden brown and the dough is cooked through.
4. Invert and serve. Remove the pan from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes before inverting it to a large plate or serving platter. Serve warm, and enjoy!

Recipe Variations

• Toss diced apple in cinnamon and brown sugar before layering them with the dough to make an Apple Cinnamon version.
• Melt chocolate chips into the caramel mixture before tossing with the biscuit dough.
• Add a touch of sea salt to the caramel sauce before baking.
• Embrace the flavors of fall by adding a dash of pumpkin spice to your caramel monkey bread.
• Drizzle maple syrup over the top to create a maple pecan flavor combo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Tips & Tricks

• Work quickly with your refrigerated biscuits – they will rise best in the oven if they go in while still cool.
• Try substituting canned cinnamon rolls for the biscuits for an even sweeter version!
• Make sure to remove the monkey bread from the pan after 10 minutes, or else the caramel sauce will start to solidify and stick to the pan.  If you forget, you can toss it back into a warm oven for a couple of minutes and then invert it.  Another trick – use a hairdryer on the hottest setting and blow it over the outside of the pan!  Works like a charm.

More Sweet Breakfast Treats

• Easy Monkey Bread
• Apple Monkey Bread
• Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread
• Triple Berry Sweet Rolls
• Double Chocolate Banana Bread
• Best Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
• Classic French Toast Bake
• Lemon Blueberry Scones
• More Sweet Breakfast Recipes

More Caramel Recipes You’ll love…

• Caramel Roll Recipe
• Caramel Sauce for Apples
• Best Apples For Caramel Apples
• Caramel Candy Recipes
• Caramel Popcorn Recipe
• Caramel Dip Recipe for Apples
• Cream Cheese Caramel Apple Recipe
• More Dessert Recipes

This Caramel Pecan Monkey Bread is ooey gooey, absolutely delicious and easy peasy to throw together for a holiday or any weekend morning.  One bite and you’ll understand why it is one of our most requested family favorites.