One of my all-time favorite holiday recipes is a fresh batch of monkey bread. The first time I had monkey bread as a kid it was covered in caramel, and it wasn’t my favorite, but I soon realized that was not how all monkey bread was made! My favorite type of monkey bread is melty and gooey baked cinnamon and sugar-covered dough bites, I mean, what is there not to like?!
Gluten-Free & Vegan Chai Monkey Bread
What is monkey bread? Monkey bread is a soft and sweet cinnamon sugar bread that is served as a breakfast treat almost like a cinnamon roll. Similar to a cinnamon roll, Monkey bread has very similar flavors and textures but a cinnamon tends to be more bread like in flavor where monkey breads composition of round dough bites covered in cinnamon sugar give each bite the texture of the middle of a cinnamon roll. that is a long way of saying, the best part of the cinnamon roll is the center, which is every bite in monkey bread! Have I convinced you to make it yet?
What ingredients make Monkey Bread?
- Chai powder
- Ground Cinnamon
- Sugar
- Gluten-Free Flour
- Yeast
- Ground Nutmeg
- Vegan Butter
Let’s bake Gluten-Free & Vegan Chai Monkey Bread
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Gluten-Free & Vegan Chai Monkey Bread
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: Monkey Bread
- Category: bread
- Method: baking
Description
Gluten-Free & Vegan Chai Monkey Bread is the ultimate holiday treat. Sweet sugar combined with warm cinnamon and chai spices.
Ingredients
Dough:
- 2 cups of warm water
- 1 packet of yeast
- 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of chai powder
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 3 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour
Chai / Cinnamon Sugar:
- 3/4 cups of granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon of chai powder
- 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
Melted Butter:
- 4 tablespoons of melted vegan butter
Instructions
- In a bowl mix together the sugar, chai powder, and ground cinnamon and set aside
- In a large bowl, pour in the warm water, add the yeast and using a spoon agitate the water and the yeast until slight bubbles form
- Next add the baking powder, chai powder, cinnamon and gluten-free flour until a dough forms
- Grease a baking pan, I like to use a loaf pan, if you are using a bundt pan you will need to 1 1/2 the recipe
- Using your hands, form 1″ dough balls and roll each dough ball through the chai cinnamon sugar mixture you prepared, and place the dough balls in the pan.
- Repeat the dough ball sugar coating process until the dough is fully used up,
- You will have a lot of sugar and chai, cinnamon left over – using a new bowl, melt the vegan butter and pour the butter into the sugar mixture to create a loose sugar butter paste
- Pour the cinnamon sugar, butter mixture over the top of the dough balls
- Place the pan in a warm spot in your house for about 1 hour for the dough to double in size
- Once the dough has doubled in size, place in a 425°F oven for 30 minutes until the butter is bubbly and the top looks crunchy
- Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from the pan
Notes
- If you use a bundt pan, 1 1/2 or 2x the recipe
Gluten-Free Monkey Bread
A few years ago I tested and tested and tested the inspiration for this recipe and made a traditional monkey bread; Gluten-Free & Vegan Monkey Bread. To me, adding chai spice to a cinnamon recipe adds such a great depth of flavor while adding a holiday twist to a classic monkey bread.
2 Comments
Lindsay
March 8, 2024 at 12:35 pmThis has such nice rise but it desperately needs salt. I wish I’d thought of that before I wasted all that expensive flour. I think if you add 1/2 tsp or so of salt it would be really good!
Paige
March 8, 2024 at 1:19 pmI love the feedback! I’m going to add that to our recipe and update it!