I was looking through some old notebooks last week and found a forgotten treasure–some notes that I’d made on gluten free Monkey Bread. Okay, yeah, I was excited. Monkey Bread was one of the things that my mom made every Christmas morning. I loved helping her roll the dough in butter and cinnamon sugar, and I HAD to make it again.
If you’ve never had Monkey Bread, it’s basically small balls of biscuit dough that have been rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar and then baked in a bundt pan. You can then turn the baked Monkey Bread out onto a plate and it’s very pretty for a breakfast or brunch buffet. Since we don’t have any fancy bundt pans in our RV, I don’t have a pretty picture for you, but it tastes great no matter how you bake it =)
Instructions
- 1 1/2 c. brown rice flour
- 2 c. corn starch or tapioca starch
- 1/2 c. sorghum flour
- 1 Tbsp. xanthan gum
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 Tbsp. baking powder
- 4 oz. butter, frozen
- 2 cups water (*please read note below!)
- 1 large egg
- 1 c. sugar
- 1 c. brown sugar
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 4 oz. butter (1 stick), melted
- 1 c. chopped pecans (optional)
Instructions for the Dough and assembly:
- In a large mixing bowl thoroughly combine the flours, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum.
- Grate the butter into the flour using the small holed side of a box grater. Mix the butter into the flour so that there are no large balls of grated butter.
- Add the egg and water to the flour and stir until the dry and liquid ingredients are well combined.
- Mix the sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon together in a shallow pan. Put them melted butter in a separate small bowl.
- Form the dough into balls that are approximately 1″ in diameter. After you form each ball, dip it in the melted butter and then roll it in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place the sugared balls close together in a 9″ x 13″ glass baking dish or in a Bundt pan. Sprinkle any remaining sugar (and chopped pecans) over the top.
- Bake the monkey bread in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes (30 minutes or so in a Bundt pan). Test the center of the bread to make sure that it’s not doughy. If it’s not, then dig in. Otherwise, continue baking until it’s baked through. If you used a Bundt pan, let the bread sit for a few minutes and then turn it out onto a decorative plate for serving.
* The exact amount of water needed for this recipe may vary a bit. Different brands of flours absorb water differently and volume measurements of flour are inherently inexact. For recipes like this it’s best to add the water gradually while you mix the dough….and then stop adding water once the dough is the consistency that you want. The consistency for this dough should thick enough that you can easily form it into balls. Two cups of water should be just about right, but don’t be afraid to use your judgment. If you add a bit too much water, let the dough sit for a few minutes and it will firm up some as the flour absorbs the water. You can also stir in a few more tablespoons of rice or sorghum flour if you need to.
Sounds so yummy! I’m going to have to try this as I miss Monkey Bread! Only thing is I didn’t see the note about the water at the bottom…am I missing something. I want to make sure I can do this right the first time. 🙂
I do not see the *note below…
Is it important to see when making the monkey bread?
Michelle » Thanks for catching that. I know I had a note in their at some point, but must have deleted it at some point while editing the post. This one’s been in my draft files for a while! I’ve gone back and added the note now.
P.S. Thanks for everyone else who noticed this as well. I didn’t approve all of those comments since I went back and fixed the note.
Is there a way of printing recipes without 2-3 extra pages? Perhaps I’m missing something?
Thank you
BJ Daniel » The easiest way is to copy the portion you want and paste it into a text document for printing.
When you select print, on your print preview page, by default you get ALL pages to print. Select only the pages you want by selecting Pages. I do this all the time. You can also select duplex or double sided print to save pap[er. Hope this helped.
Hi Mary Frances: I always made monkey bread with bread dough. I am so going to try this, though, as biscuits are so much faster!
If your travels bring you to Niagara Falls, let me know and we will tour you around!
This looks delicious. Do you think it would work with a butter substitute and with Egg Replacer? We currently have to avoid gluten, dairy, and eggs, which is making life fairly difficult – at least in terms of satisfying a sweet tooth.
Anne Tjaden » I would think it would be fine. The butter replacement shouldn’t be any problem. And egg replacement powders were made for things like this. Go for it!
Looks delicious! Was thinking it would be good to freeze a few for future breakfast days – have you tried freezing them after baking or do they disappear too quickly, lol.
Elizabeth » Disappear too quickly!
I use your flour mix ALL THE TIME!!! Why don’t you use it in your recipes?
Pam G. » Well, this technically is my flour mix for biscuits….it’s just not the flour mix that i use for most of my other recipes =) And, while we’re traveling I’ve ended up using a lot of packaged flour mixes because I can’t always get the flours I need to make my own. Unfortunately, there’s not much room to store 25lb bags of flour in the RV =(
I make a FANTASTIC waffle out of this flour!!!! Light, crispy and my family loves them! Would be glad to share it with you any time!
OMG, Bless you for sharing, Mary Frances! I have been craving cinnamon buns for months now, but as there is just lil’ ole me, I didn’t want to go through the hassle of making an entire batch. This recipe was perfect!! I made them this weekend, used the bundt pan, and they turned out AWESOME! So delicious!
Kind regards,
Rayone
Does anyone know what to substitute for rice flour and xanthan gum? I am allergic to rice & corn, as well as wheat. Can you use quinoa flour or teff in place of rice and guar gum to replace xanthan gum in the same proportions?
Nan » I haven’t baked with quinoa or teff flour in quite a while. Several of my readers have had good results with using sorghum flour instead of brown rice flour. They then substitute a bean flour for any sorghum flour that’s already listed in the recipe.
The guar gum for xanthan gum substitution is not nearly as straight forward. I’d start by using twice as much guar gum as xanthan gum. I’d also add another egg or two. Add the water gradually until the dough reaches a workable consistency. The additional egg is to provide some additional stability for the dough. When I’ve used guar gum the dough has always turned out to be less pliable and the end product has been crumbly, so the eggs are my suggestion to combat that.
Thank you for your expertise! I will give that a try.
I was wondering if substituting some of the water for soda water if they would be as fluffy as I have heard. Does it also work in some of your other recipes? Thanks for making this information available. I miss breads. 😉
Tracy
P.S. totally understand about the camper storage issue.
Tracy » I haven’t used soda water as a substitute to get extra fluffiness. I’m really pretty happy with the lightness and fluffiness of my biscuit based recipes. That might be helpful in a yeast-free bread or in yeast rolls to help get some more bubbles into the dough.
I can’t handle too much xanthan gum. Is it possible to replace it? Ditto for guar gum. A little once in a while isn’t a big deal. But too much gives me a belly ache, so I’m trying to find recipes that don’t have it in it.
Hello Mary. I so enjoy seeing all you have some up with that is GF! Wonderful.
I struggle however, with a strong sensitivity to the old Xanthan gum (and other gums) that has me tummy sick for days.
Do you have many xanthan gum free recipes…and if so, are you listing them separately, so they are easy to find for us that are not just Gluten intolerant.
Thanks. And Merry Christmas! M
This was the best GF recipe I have made so far. I served this on Christmas morning and they were a real hit. It’s the first bread-type recipe I’ve made that doesn’t taste like an imitation. I am anxious to try more recipes now – thank you so much!!
Pam
The best gf monkey bread! My five little monkeys and their dad love it! What’s great is that you can use dairy free butter and it turns out great. Tastes really good cold, too.,