Incredible Savory Monkey Bread is buttery and flavorful, using refrigerated canister biscuits and any herb and cheese combination that fits your menu. An impressive looking addition to the holidays or any day of the week.
Incredible is one word to describe this Monkey Bread recipe… Vanishing, mouth-watering, best-ever are some other words I wanted to use. But hopefully just looking at this beautiful dinner roll option will help you decide that this is absolutely the bread you need to serve at your table. Best of all, incredible savory monkey bread is also easy monkey bread.
Get creative with your choice of toppings for this bread. The more variety you choose, the more colorful and tasty it’ll be! For the version shown here, I used a combination of fresh chopped parsley, poppy seeds, and pine nuts. Dried cranberries with some cracked black pepper add a hint of sweet with all the savory options, not to mention pretty color. Parmesan cheese and cheddar are essential options – well because hello, cheese on bread!
This bread is amazingly easy, but also amazingly delicious. Canned refrigerator rolls are the base. But I have to give a recommendation here. If you can find them, Immaculate brand Buttermilk Biscuits are excellent. No hydrogenated oils are used in the biscuits and the flavor tastes as good or better than homemade. I find them regularly at Whole Foods, Target and Sprouts markets. Recently, I’ve been using Trader Joe’s brand of buttermilk biscuits, and they’re just as good. Anyway, let me show you how easy this recipe is:
First generously grease a Bundt pan with butter. Butter is an important flavor enhancer for all monkey bread.
Then melt more butter and add minced fresh garlic. Mince it as tiny as you can. The garlic will adhere to your rolls before you add the other toppings. Alternately, you could place the garlic in its own bowl and roll the pieces in garlic before dipping in the butter to get a lot more garlic on every bite.
Then get creative with your toppings, just make sure to use at least one cheese option. Fresh herbs are pretty, but dried work equally as well. Dried herbs are more concentrated than fresh, so you might want to use them sparingly. The poppy seeds are pretty and add a nice little crunch, but they coat the rolls pretty heavily and will be the most likely to fall “out of form” when you take the monkey bread out of the pan, if that matters to you. You could sprinkle the poppy seeds rather than roll them, but I went for full coverage so I rolled mine.
As you line your pan with the dipped rolls, try to alternate them for the look you’re going for. Just keep adding around the pan and it’ll come together in a snap. The oven temperature of 350F degrees works perfectly for the dark non-stick Bundt pan. However, have some aluminum foil ready to cover the bread during the last 5 or 10 minutes of baking to ensure it doesn’t get too dark.
Here’s why you want to be generous when buttering your pan. The result is buttery, golden pieces of bread with tasty toppings that your little and big monkeys will be quick to pull off and pop in their mouths. The bread can be served like this or easily turned back over on a serving platter so the pretty top is visible. The more cheese you use, the more likely the bread is to hold together when flipped. That doesn’t matter to me because it looks just as pretty when some of the pieces fall out-of-place.
If you need more reasons to choose Incredible Savory Monkey Bread for your next meal, how about these- The monkey bread can be assembled the day before serving. If you’re looking for a recipe to let the kids help with, this is a fun one for them. Enjoy this at your next gathering and be ready for it to become a menu staple. And if you want a super cheesy roll option, check out my Incredible Cheese Bombs. (Yes, another ‘incredible’ recipe) Cheers and enjoy!
Incredible Savory Monkey Bread
Ingredients
- 2 16 ounce cans of 8-count each refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
- ½ cup salted butter, melted
- 3 garlic cloves very finely minced
- 5 or more different herbs and/or cheeses as coatings. For my recipe I used fresh chopped parsley, chopped pine nuts, dried cranberries (chopped a little) with fresh black pepper, poppy seeds, shredded cheddar, grated Parmesan with paprika. Change your seasonings and cheese depending on the menu. Change out of few options and add taco seasoning to your cheese plus some red pepper flakes for a Tex Mex option. Fresh or dried basil and oregano add an Italian flare.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Very generously grease a 9- or 10-inch Bundt pan with butter. I used a dark non-stick Bundt pan and 350F degrees was perfect, so don't feel you need to lower the temperature unless your oven runs hot.
- Place your desired herbs and cheeses into small dipping bowls. I used about 1/2 cup of each. Again, see below for tips and ideas for delicious herb and cheese options.
- Stir minced garlic into melted butter. Cut each biscuit in half and roll into a ball. Complete this step before you start dipping in butter because if your hands are greasy, the rolls won't stay intact.
- Dip each biscuit ball in butter and garlic mixture. Some of the garlic should adhere to the rolls as you do this. As you start to run low on the butter, more of the garlic will stick, so don't worry if it doesn't as much at the beginning. Roll each ball in desired coating and arrange the biscuits in the pan so the various coatings are alternated.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until biscuits are done and surface is golden. I highly recommend laying a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the biscuits at around 25 minutes to prevent the top from getting too brown too fast.
- Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Run a thin, soft rubber spatula around the edge and down the sides of the pan to loosen any stuck cheese, if necessary. Invert onto a plate, then lay serving platter on top and flip bread over onto serving platter.
- Recipe Tips:
- You can assemble the monkey bread up to a day ahead of serving. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and then remove from refrigerator while oven is preheating.
- Any type of refrigerated dough can work here, like flaky version rolls. Just make sure the total amount used is 32 ounces.
Notes
- If you want to make this recipe super buttery and with cheese that kind of pulls with the cheesy pieces, you can very lightly drizzle a little extra melted butter over the top to seep down into the monkey bread as it bakes. Be very frugal here, though. For your cheese covered pieces, you can take your hand and cover the cheese pieces with a little extra cheese than adheres when rolled. I did not do this for the monkey bread pictured here on Good Dinner Mom.
Recipe adapted from Five Heart Home.
Great. Kids had loads of fun preparing and eating!
Thanks Margaret! This is the perfect recipe for kids to help. 🙂
2g of carbs?
LOL no.
Ha! Thanks for catching that Molly. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? I’ve corrected the nutrition information. 🙂
So every piece gets garlic butter first? Even the cranberries? I’m confused by the directions saying “Dip each biscuit ball in butter and garlic mixture.“ Several people have commented that this is both sweet and savory, just verifying that all the balls should have garlic on them before rolling in a topping?
Yes, dip each one in the butter/garlic mixture and then roll in the different toppings. Even the ones with cranberries. You won’t be sorry. 🙂
I made this as our rolls for Thanksgiving and they were such a hit!! I recommend trying out Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel Seasoning on some rolls- it was delicious. Thanks for a great recipe!
This sounds like the perfect gift for the “salty treats” lover that I work for. I would love to get reheating instructions for it as I am planning to make it and give as part of a Christmas Goodies Basket and I would love to include those instructions with it.
Hi Lori, I’ve never reheated them so this is a guess, though I’ll call it a good one based on experience with other breads. “To serve heated, baked in 325F preheated oven for 12-15 minutes.”
Think this could be made in a different pan than a bundt pan?
Hi Nikki, Absolutely. I’ve only made it in a bundt pan but any baking pan will work. You might not need to bake it for as long however, if your bread layers are more shallow than if they were in a bundt (if that makes sense). If you put them in a single layer, just watch for them to turn golden. Thanks for stopping by!
I made this yesterday for Easter dinner. It was a big hit! I guess I thought the bread would “rise” higher up the bundt pan. I use a 9 or 10″ pan. It seems to go higher in your photos. Anyhow, it was great and my youngest grandaughter was thrilled to be able to do most of the preparation…they will now be called Gwennie’s Buns! ha ha.I will look for the Immaculate Baking biscuits at Target next time.
Hi Joannie, I love this! “Gweenie’s buns!”, how cute. I’m glad they were a hit even if they didn’t rise as high. I’ve made them before with Pillsbury rolls also and I don’t remember thinking they didn’t rise up enough. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Hi there! I’m confused a little as to what the end result is? One picture showed a golden bread, but the last few pictures show the individual pieces. What does it look like when baked?
The bread comes out as one golden piece that then can be taken apart into the individual “rolls”. The picture that looks like golden bread as you called it, is the bottom before turned back over. Hope this helps.
yum! Can’t wait to do this! I am sure my family will love! Thank-you
Hi Gwen, thanks for stopping by. It really is a fun and beautiful way to serve bread.
I made this for Super Bowl Sunday this year. It was a great add to the mix of food but was also very unique. I love that there’s a little something for everyone: sweet, salty, savory. It was so easy and quick to throw together. I baked it at home and then just warmed it up in my friend’s oven when it was time to eat. There are so many variations you could throw together too. cinnamon and sugar, thyme and swiss, dates and figs…the possibilities are endless. Thanks for the great recipe!
I’m a huge fan of sweet version of monkey bread and can’t wait to try out your savory version. Maybe to go along with our Christmas dinner? Thanks for sharing!
Michelle, Thanks for stopping by and I’d love to hear what you think of it after you make it. We love it in my family.
Genius idea!
Wow, these are beautiful. I was thisclose to making rolls from scratch this year (so.much.work.) but these look amazing. They are definitely gracing the table this year! I love, love, love that they are semi-homemade. Thanksgiving is stressful enough!
What a stunning recipe Sally. It looks AMAZING!
Someone JUST told me that I need to make this!! So um, me stumbling upon your recipe is just a sign that I truly need to!
Wow Gigi! Let me know if you do and what you think of it. Thanks for stopping by.
Wow! Just WOW! These look so amazing I instantly fell in love with the Instagram pic and had to come visit the site to comment Sally.
So easy, simple and imaginative. I am definitely giving these a shot at Thanksgiving with the family. Thanks and Pinned!
Kevin, I would be honored if any of my recipes made it to your family’s Thanksgiving table. Thanks so much for your friendship and encouragement.