If you can make pizza dough, you can make monkey bread: divide your pizza dough into small portions, roll them into balls, cram them into a vessel, top with cheese, and bake until golden. Brush them with an herby garlic butter after they come out of the oven and serve them alongside homemade tomato sauce!

Just baked garlic-herb monkey bread on a cutting board.

Making monkey bread requires understanding a method more than a recipe. Essentially, you take pizza dough (about a pound for a standard 9- to 10-inch skillet or baking dish), divide it into small balls, cram those balls together into a vessel, top with cheese if desired, and bake until golden.

The variations are endless, but I love this one for its simplicity: a 4-ingredient pizza dough and a flavored butter, a mix of fresh garlic, parsley, and crushed red pepper flakes, brushed on post-bake. The union here is so much more than the sum of its parts, and aside a vat of homemade tomato sauce, well, this savory monkey bread is pure heaven.

How to Make Monkey Bread, Step by Step

First, gather your ingredients: flour, water, salt, and instant yeast.

Ingredients for focaccia dough.

Whisk the dry ingredients together, add the water, and stir until you have a sticky dough ball:

Stirred together focaccia dough.

Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes, then stretch and fold it. Video guidance:

Let it rise until it doubles in volume:

Monkey bread dough, risen.

Turn it out onto a floured work surface:

Monkey bread dough turned out onto a counter top.

Divide the dough into 19 small portions:

Portioned monkey bread dough.

Ball up each portion.

Monkey bread dough, portioned and balled up on a counter top.

Transfer the balls to a buttered 9- to 10-inch cast iron skillet:

Monkey bread dough balls in a cast iron skillet.

Let the dough rest until the balls fill the pan:

Monkey bread dough balls risen in a 9-inch cast iron skillet.

Top with mozzarella, brush with olive oil, and transfer to the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely golden brown:

Just baked monkey bread in a cast iron skillet.

Meanwhile, make the spicy, herby, garlicky butter:

Herby, spicy, garlic butter in a small skillet.

Brush the herby butter over the just-baked rolls:

Just baked garlic-herb monkey bread in a cast iron skillet.

Serve aside homemade tomato sauce:

Just baked garlic-herb monkey bread on a cutting board.
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Just baked garlic-herb monkey bread on a cutting board.

Cheesy Garlic & Herb Monkey Bread

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Description

If you can make pizza dough, you can make monkey bread: divide your pizza dough into small portions, roll them into balls, cram them into a vessel, top with cheese, and bake until golden. Irresistible aside homemade tomato sauce!

Notes:

Monkey Bread Dough recipe adapted from the pizza recipe in my cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs. 

If you don’t want to make the dough from scratch, you can use a pound of store-bought pizza dough instead. 

If you make my pizza dough recipe, this is half the recipe, so if ever you find yourself with two rounds of dough stored in your fridge, you can use those two rounds in this recipe. 

Yeast: If you use 1 teaspoon of instant yeast and plan on doing a faster rise, use lukewarm water to help your dough rise in a timely manner. 

Ingredients

for the dough, see notes above:

  • 2 cups (256 g)  bread or all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon (6 g) kosher salt
  • 1/4 to 1 teaspoon (1 to 4 g) instant yeast, see notes above
  • a heaping 3/4 cup (200 g) water

for topping:

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • pinch red pepper flakes
  • 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley
  • 4 ounces whole milk, low-moisture mozzarella, pulled into pieces 
  • extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing

for the serving:

Instructions

  1. Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and instant yeast. Add the water. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the liquid is absorbed and the ingredients form a sticky dough ball. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes.
  2. Stretch and fold the dough: Fill a small bowl with water. Using a wet hand, stretch and fold the dough by grabbing an edge and pulling it up and towards the center. Repeat this stretching and folding process, 8 to 10 times, moving your hand around the edge of the dough with every set of stretches and folds. As you stretch and fold, you should feel the dough transform from being sticky and shaggy to smooth and cohesive. Find video guidance in the post above as well as here. 
  3. Let it rise: Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until it doubles in volume, 12-18 hours if using 1 gram of yeast, 2-3 hours if using 4 grams of yeast. 
  4. Proof: Butter a 9- or 10-inch cast iron skillet or baking dish. Dust a work surface with flour. Turn the dough out onto the surface and use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 19 small portions — I know 19 feels very specific, but it makes for the perfect arrangement in the skillet. With floured hands, roll each portion into a ball. Transfer the balls to the prepared skillet. (Note: At this point, you can wrap the skillet in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for 24 hours.)
  5. Preheat the oven to 450ºF. 
  6. Make the flavored butter: Place the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Finely mince the garlic or grate it with a microplane, then add it to the butter. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes and the parsley. Once butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat.
  7. Bake the monkey bread: When the dough balls have doubled in size and are squishing together in the pan, scatter the mozzarella over the top. Drizzle with about a tablespoon of olive oil and brush it to distribute evenly. Transfer the pan to the oven, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the balls are evenly golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with the garlic-herb butter. Let cool briefly before serving with the tomato sauce on the side.
  • Prep Time: 2 hours
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Category: Bread
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American