Easy Monkey Bread Recipe

This easy monkey bread recipe is a citrusy version of monkey bread with a Prosecco and orange juice glaze. Perfect for a Sunday brunch with enough Prosecco left for plenty of Mimosas!

My all time comfort food for breakfast or brunch is a Streusel Coffee Cake, because what can be better than streusel. But I love to experiment, so the last time I had a house full of people I tried out this easy monkey bread recipe I found over on Show Me The Yummy and everyone loved it. It looks like it would take a lot of effort, but this is deceivingly simple.  

The conversation of Mimosa’s came up recently because where I live, you can’t get a Mimosa or any other alcohol on Sundays until after 1pm.  Brunch on Sunday is so much better with Bloody Mary’s or Mimosas.  

The result is that there are very few brunch places on Sunday, and I don’t want brunch after 1pm.  (Good news, our crazy legislature is considering changing this law and we may get the Brunch Bill out of it, fingers crossed!)  

So open up a bottle or can of Prosecco or Cava and bring out the orange juice, you need to make Mimosa monkey bread.

Perfect for Spring or an Easter Brunch and super easy to make.  Don’t worry it doesn’t really use that much Prosecco, just 6 tablespoons, still plenty left for Mimosas. Most Monkey Bread recipes use a very sweet brown sugar and pecan base but this version is much lighter tasting, (calories are probably the same). 

Butter and sugar, of course, but then orange zest and orange juice instead of brown sugar and pecans.  It’s a given that you have to have it with Mimosas. What else are you going to do with the bottle of Prosecco you have left over!

If you love a citrus flavor with your sweet rolls, and have extra orange zest and juice, then try some orange sweet rolls, no Prosecco but wonderful for a brunch. Another favorite is Dollywood Cinnamon Bread.

Why you’ll love it

• There’s only 6 tablespoons of Proseco in the recipe so you have plenty left over for Mimosas.
• Monkey bread is easy to eat, you can slice it or just pull off a bite.
• It looks impressive and makes a wonderful breakfast, brunch or dessert item!

What you’ll need

• Refrigerated biscuit dough – you can buy the cans at your local grocery. The flaky ones don’t work as great, so stick to the regular dough.
• Oranges + orange zest – you’ll want both the juice of the fresh oranges and the outside peeling for extra orange flavor!
• Prosecco – you can also use a rosé sparkling wine, or if you want to make it non-alcoholic, ginger ale or clear carbonated beverage will work.
• Sugar, powdered sugar, butter, vanilla

How to make easy monkey bread that tastes like a mimosa

If you haven’t made Monkey Bread before, it’s just refrigerated biscuit dough that you cut into quarters and then shake with a sugar mixture. You put them in a bundt pan and pour a butter sauce of some type over it. It’s so easy.  Some recipes you can pull apart with your hands, and you can with this one, but the glaze on top makes it a little sticky.  I prefer to slice it.

Step 1

Grease a 9-10 inch bundt pan with butter.

Step 2

Place sugar and orange zest in a gallon size ziplcock and shake to combine. Toss quartered biscuit dough in the bag and shake until the biscuits are coated. Place in the bundt pan.

Step 3

In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, orange juice, 3 tablespoons Prosecco and vanilla. and pour it over the biscuits.

Step 4

Bake for 30 minutes until the biscuits have cooked through. Let cool for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a plate. Once it’s out of the bundt pan, pour a glaze of powdered sugar, Prosecco and orange zest over the monkey bread and serve.

Pro tip: In the event you don’t want to open a bottle, I found these cute little cans on special at Whole Foods.  They convinced me to try a taste at the grocery, (it was 10am) but I’m so glad I did. This was a sparkling Rosé by Presto which was only slightly sweet and would be nice to sip on its own. So feel free to try any type of sparkling wine for this recipe.

How to store Prosecco

Prosecco should be stored in the refrigerator with a wine stopper. The cold air will slow down the release of air bubbles. It will only stay fresh for about 24 hours, after that, it will taste flat. Unlike Champaign which will last for 3-5 days, Prosecco will only last a day.

Variations

• Try adding some pecans with the sugar mixture before adding the biscuit dough.
• If you’re a chocolate fan, try adding some chocolate chips.
• If you want to make this more like a traditional monkey bread, simply reduce the granulated sugar to a half cup, then add in a half cup of brown sugar with a half tablespoon of cinnamon along with the orange zest, to coat your biscuits before placing them into the pan.

How to make a Mimosa

Now that you have a bottle of Prosecco open, what better time than to make Mimosas. These light fresh cocktails are so easy to make. I like to start with a 50/50 ratio of Prosecco or sparkling wine to orange juice and adjust according to your taste. Pour the Prosecco in first and top with orange juice.

FAQ’s and tips

More sweet treats to enjoy

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