Monkey Bread with cream cheese hiding inside! Stuffing the dough with gooey-ness makes a delicious treat. Prepare to WOW your guests!
Why This Recipe Works
I’m certain there is not a soul on the planet who doesn’t love monkey bread. People trip over themselves just to get to the plate before everyone else.
A few years ago I had the delicious thought to combine two of my favorite food in the same recipe: cream cheese and monkey bread. That was the day this delicious little recipe was born.
Monkey bread is the perfect recipe for breakfast gatherings or brunches or even dessert. It’s always the first thing to go because of its addicting qualities.
Imagine your guests’ surprised faces when they bite into a chunk of monkey bread only to taste that there is gooey cream cheese surprise waiting in the middle! It’s a little piece of heaven!
How To Make Monkey Bread With Cream Cheese
Step 1
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with cooking spray and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine 2/3 cup each of dark brown sugar and granulated sugar and cinnamon. Mix well.
Melt 3/4 cup salted butter in the microwave.
Step 2
You’ll start with an 8-oz. package of cream cheese and two 12-ounce tubes refrigerated flaky buttermilk biscuits. Use a sharp knife to cut the cream cheese into 20 same-size pieces.
Slice 10 discs of biscuit dough from each tube of biscuits.
Set the discs onto a flat surface and set one cube of cream cheese in the center of each piece of dough. Wrap the edges of the dough up and around the cheese so all that is visible is the top side of cream cheese cube.
Place 10 cheese-stuffed pieces of dough, cheese-side-up, into bottom of the prepared pan.
Step 3
Top with half of the sugar cinnamon mixture and half of the melted butter. Top with the remaining dough pieces, cheese-side-down, the remaining sugar and remaining butter.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Invert onto a serving platter and serve.
Recipe Notes
- Buy full-fat cream cheese and don’t skimp! Super cheap blocks of cream cheese do not melt as well as ones that cost just a little bit more.
- It is definitely ok to use a different variety of biscuit dough. I love the flavor and flakiness of the flaky buttermilk biscuits, but the monkey bread will still taste great if a different variety is used.
- Light brown sugar can replace dark brown sugar without much flavor altering. The dark brown variety adds a nice rich depth to the sugars.
- To tell if the monkey bread is done, the top pieces should be uniformly golden brown. Gently remove a piece from the center. If the dough is fully cooked, the recipe is done baking!
How To Make Monkey Bread Without a Bundt Pan
The rounded corners of the bundt pan will allow for uniform baking, but if you don’t have a bundt pan a tube pan or angel food cake pan will work. If you don’t have any of these pans, a 9×9 or 9×13 pan will work, too!
Place the dough as evenly as possible in a layer in the pan and start checking for signs that the bread is done when it has been in the oven for 30 minutes.
Here’s another little trick. If you have a spring form pan (typically used to bake cheesecake) or a large round cake pan (9 inches), place an empty can in the center, surround it with the dough and bake!
FAQ About Monkey Bread
Monkey bread is a bunch of balls of dough being baked together with sugars and butter. During baking, the dough balls adhere together making it possible to pull pieces away by using your fingers. The term “monkey bread” comes from being a finger food, the same way monkeys eat their food.
Because there is cream cheese hidden in the centers of the pieces, store this version of monkey bread covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. Will it last that long, though? Mine never does!
Once it has baked and cooled completely, monkey bread can be frozen for 3-4 months. Wrap tightly in foil before placing into the freezer. When you are ready to enjoy it, let it thaw completely before reheating.
Place the monkey bread on a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 250 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until the centers are warm.
Salted Butter vs Unsalted Butter
Ahh, the great baking debate. Many bakers use unsalted butter in their baked goods in order to avoid over-salting. I, however, believe that there is no such thing as “over-salting.”
I always use salted butter in my baked goods (and for everything else under the sun) because it gives everything I make an extra touch of salty deliciousness. If you go the unsalted route, keep in mind that you may need to add a bit extra salt to the recipe!
Monkey Bread Variations
- Finely chop some pecans or walnuts and place them in the middle layer of the cream cheese and dough balls.
- Sprinkle chocolate chips into the middle and on the top before baking.
- Add sliced apples, pears or berries to the middle layer.
- Drizzle a simple icing over the top, just before serving!
Sweet Breakfast Treats
I love a good savory breakfast, but there is something so special and yummy about a nice sugary breakfast, am I right? Kids especially go bananas over pancakes and cinnamon rolls and any breakfast food that contains sugar.
Here are a few delicious ideas to make any day of the week or for the next time you host breakfast or brunch!
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
- No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls
- Banana Crumb Muffins
- Slow Cooker Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread
- Apple Coffee Cake
What To Serve For Brunch
- Homemade Bagels require only 5 ingredients and in 20 minutes from start to finish! NO YEAST or rising or waiting required. These easy bagels are soft, flavorful and taste great with savory or sweet toppings.
- Enjoy breakfast the healthy way! Whip up a batch of these healthy breakfast muffins as a perfect on-the-go meal or snack to stay on track throughout the day. Even kids love them!
- Combine eggs, broccoli, tomatoes and a bit of garlic to create a delicious and filling meal and an EASY, healthy eggs and veggies dish to start your day. Change the veggies up if you so desire!
- Save some cash by making your own delicious Vanilla Iced Latte at home! Use your Nespresso machine to get the job done quickly and easily.
- Easy chocolate chip muffins require only a handful of ingredients and they are all probably sitting in your kitchen! Super moist and yummy.
Party Food Recipes
- The classic, crowd-pleasing Fruit Pizza has a cookie dough crust, dreamy cream cheese frosting and a colorful top layer of fruit and a tasty glaze.
- Taco Ranch Pasta Salad – This delicious pasta salad gets totally devoured at gatherings, no matter the season.
- Sausage Cheese Dip is easy to make (let your crockpot do the work for you!), cheesy, flavorful and totally irresistible! Serve as an appetizer at your next party and it won’t last long.
- This is the best 7-Layer Taco Dip you’ll ever meet! It’s the perfect appetizer and party food and it is always the first thing to get devoured.
- Crockpot Meatballs require only a few ingredients with only a few minutes of prep. They are SO EASY to make, totally packed with delicious flavor and great for game-day parties or holidays.
- Spinach Artichoke Dip is a party staple! People always get excited about this dip and its so easy to make! It’s a filling, cheesy snack or appetizer that you can put on pita squares, crackers or chips.
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Monkey Bread With Cream Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 24 oz flaky buttermilk biscuits refrigerated
- 8 oz cream cheese cubed
- 3/4 cup butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with cooking spray; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the sugars and cinnamon; set aside.
- Slice 10 discs of dough from each tube of biscuits. Set discs on a flat surface and set one cube of cream cheese in the center of each piece of dough. Wrap edges of dough up and around the cheese so all that is visible is the top side of cream cheese cube. Place 10 dough-wrapped cheese cubes, cheese-side-up, in bottom of prepared pan.
- Top with half of the sugar mixture and half of the butter. Top with the remaining dough-wrapped cheese cubes, cheese-side-down, the remaining sugar and remaining butter.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and serve.
Notes
- Buy full-fat cream cheese and don’t skimp! Super cheap blocks of cream cheese do not melt as well as ones that cost just a little bit more.
- It is definitely ok to use a different variety of biscuit dough. I love the flavor and flakiness of the flaky buttermilk biscuits, but the monkey bread will still taste great if a different variety is used.
- Light brown sugar can replace dark brown sugar without much flavor altering. The dark brown variety adds a nice rich depth to the sugars.
- To tell if the monkey bread is done, the top pieces should be uniformly golden brown. Gently remove a piece from the center. If the dough is fully cooked, the recipe is done baking!
MANDY
Really love that it's easy enough for my kids to follow. De Lish. Everyone loves it.
Megan Porta
Hi Carolyn! If you are having a hard time cutting the dough, wet your knife a bit and that should help. Also, be sure to use a sharp knife! Hope this helps!
Megan
CAROLYN
the canned biscuits are so soft how do you slice in half
sandra
wow I must have a go at this but can you tell me can I use my halogen oven ?if so how long would you say I am salivating at the thought of this recipe x
Maggie
I made this for a friend's birthday at work, what a hit! I think it was gone within 10 min! It is absolutely delicious, thank you so much for being more creative than me and sharing it so we all can enjoy!
Megan Porta
Lea, your comment made me laugh out loud! 🙂
Megan
Lea
You mentioned something here about leftovers, and how to store them. I was just wondering if you could tell me what these "leftovers" are that you speak of? 🙂
Noel
This is amazing! ive made it before and now im adding strawberries to it!the best monkey bread recipe ive been able to find!
Su T
Loved the recipe. For personal preference I cut back on the sugar, butter and cream chees, and made a note for myself to bake 20-30 mins or until golden brown. My oven must be a bake hotter – it was a bit crunchy at 40 mins. One quick question, do you press the top to the bottom dough together so it stays together? Your pic looks like its all one piece and no split. Thanks for sharing – this one is a keeper!
Megan Porta
Hi Jody, I've never tried preparing the night before. I don't see why that would be an issue. If you try it, please let me know how it turns out!
Megan
Jody
Making this now. Is there any way to make/prep the night before and stick in the oven in the morning?
michelle
LOL! "Like a drug addict".. This does look extremely addicting. Have to try it soon. Thanks for sharing the recipe! <3
Megan Porta
Hi Danielle! Yes, absolutely light brown sugar will work great! Hope this helps!
Megan
Danielle
Can you use lit brown sugar?
zennifer
found this recipe on Pintrest…couldn't wait to try it. Made it last night (but baked it this morning) to take to my Bible study. Everyone loved it! I revised recipe a bit. Instead of cream cheese squares, I mixed in powdered sugar and vanilla and spooned mixture into center of the ball. Couldn't find my bundt pan, so used an angelfood pan, but set it on a pie tin in the oven…(things oozed out).
I used the larger packages of biscuit- the ones with 8 biscuits inside (16.3 oz.). So cut them each in half and only used 1-1/2 packages instead of two, as I was afraid they'd be raw in middle if I made it too thick.
I also added glazed pecans to the top.
There were no left-overs!
Shay Harris
I just made these, they are AH-Mazing! I sprinkled it with pecans, I enclosed the cream cheese completely in the biscuit, dipped them in the butter then rolled in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Yum-Yum
donna & gary
we made this tonight … we all loved it… looking forward to making more of this !!! thanks for sharing ….
cheri
I too found this on Pintrest. I was going to make it according to the recipe but to my surprise my bundt cake pan was missing. 🙁 So I decided to make cupcake Cream Cheese Monkey Bread. lol
I lined 16 cupcake slots wih liners. First I mixed the sugars (later found that it was way too much….probably only need 1/4 of the amount in your recipe). I set the sugar mixture to the side. Slice the cream cheese into 16 large butter patty size (or to your liking amount). I ended up only using 3/4 of the 8 oz package of cream cheese. I opened both bisquit rolls. The bisquts pull apart in half or there abouts. I pulled each bisquit apart to have 32 halves. Holding one bisquit disc in the palm of your hand, place one patty of cream cheese in the middle. Sprinkle some (about 1/4 teaspoon) of the sugar mixture over the cheese. Wrap the edges of the dough up and around the cream cheese as the above recipe guides. Take another dough disc and wrap over top of the cheese disc. Place in a cupcake liner with the top disc side up. Sprinkle a generous amount of the sugar mixture over the top (aprox. 1/2 teaspoon). Repeat these steps for each cupcake. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with powered sugar or with lightly drizzled icing and enjoy. YUMMY!!
maria
Made this last night and it was delicious except for the fact that the sugar carmelized and became hard and super sticky instead of crumbly like it looks in the picture, I didn't add all the butter because the biscuits were already swimming in it but I think next time I will. Thank you for this recipe.
jenny
I live in Australia. Are there any Ozzies who can tell me where to get refrigerated flaky biscuit tubes????