Our delicious recipe for Monkey Bread with Cranberries and a luscious Orange Glazed is the perfect holiday breakfast that the whole family will love!
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I adore monkey bread - what's not to love about the caramelized goodness? This holiday season, I'm serving this festive Cranberry Orange Glazed Monkey Bread. My family doesn't care for them, but adding chopped walnuts or pecans to this would add a yummy crunch.
And of course, sprinkling the whole thing with powdered sugar reminds me of snow, so it's just perfect for the holidays.
My daughter Olivia helped me to make this and said, "Mumma, let's pretend we're on a cooking show, and explain what we're doing." I love her enthusiasm for my nontraditional job. I love developing recipes, and she loves eating them!
So as we worked on this together, Olivia narrated. She sampled the brown sugar cinnamon mixture, she squeezed the oranges and even used the micro-plain to zest the oranges. She's such a good helper!
💭 Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some questions (and answers!) readers often ask about this Christmas Monkey Bread recipe.
Monkey bread starts with small balls of yeast dough and has a sweet sauce using sugar and lemon juice or vanilla extract. The most common version is made with just brown sugar and cinnamon, but I like dressing it up a little more for the holidays. There are hundreds of thousands of variations on monkey bread, including savory versions.
Our recipe is semi-homemade, so you don't have to spend tons of time working on making a dough. All you need to get started with a basic recipe for monkey bread are Frozen Dinner Rolls. Once you have it all assembled, it bakes for 35-40 minutes.
🧂 Ingredients
- Frozen Dinner Roll Dough
- Brown Sugar
- Ground Cinnamon
- Butter
- Cranberry Jelly
- Orange
This is meant to be a brief overview of our holiday monkey bread recipe. For step-by-step instructions and a full printable recipe card with ingredients, please scroll down to the teal box below or Jump to Recipe.
🔪Instructions
- Place the rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet to thaw – about 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350-degrees F. Spray or grease a bundt pan, taking care to get into all the grooves.
- Cut thawed rolls in half and stretch them out into a small circle. Place a ½ teaspoon in the center of the dough, then pinch the edges together to make a little pouch.
- Dip each roll piece into butter and roll in the sugar. Place in the bundt pan.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size.
- Remove wrap and bake at 350 degrees F 35-40 minutes. Cool 1 minute and invert onto serving platter.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together ¼ cup brown sugar, the juice and zest from the orange, and 2 tablespoons of cranberry jelly.
- Pour over the hot monkey bread. Let cool 5 minutes before cutting. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.
Doesn't it just look amazing?
The yummy caramel-like sauce created by the cranberry jelly, butter, and sugar is just incredible... honestly, words don't do it justice!
Equipment
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- Measuring Spoons
- Dry Measuring Cups
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Bundt Cake Pan
- Santoku Knife
- Mixing Bowl
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📖 Variations
We recommend that you try our orange and cranberry monkey bread for the first time just as it is written for the best results because that is how the recipe has been tested.
However, the next time you make it, you might consider one of these different ways of making this great recipe.
- For Thanksgiving, I add 1 pear or apple, peeled and chopped small in between the dough balls.
- Double the cranberry flavor by adding 1 cup whole cranberries. Taste the cranberries first - you may want to add just a touch more sugar because cranberries can be tart.
- Give this recipe a tweak by adding more warm spices for a gingerbread flavor. Add 1 teaspoon ginger, ½ teaspoon ground cloves and then add 1 tablespoon of molasses to the brown sugar and cranberry jelly mixture.
😋 Similar Recipes
Next time, try one of these tasty recipes:
- Cranberry Orange Bread - seasonal flavors in a delicious quick bread.
- Cranberry White Chocolate Muffins - these make a delicious on-the-go breakfast.
- Cranberry Egg Nog French Toast Bake - if you're looking for Christmas breakfast, this is it!
More Brunch Ideas
- Blueberry Monkey Bread - this pull apart bread is perfect for a Springtime brunch.
- Microwave Pecan Monkey Bread - quick and delicious!
- Bundt Cake Breakfast (Bacon Egg and Cheese) - this is a delicious breakfast that serves a crowd.
📋 Christmas Monkey Bread
This semi-homemade recipe for monkey bread is perfect for the holidays! With all the baking, wrapping gifts, writing cards and the rest, who has time to make a scratch-dough? Plus, it's so simple, the kids can get in the kitchen and give you a hand with it!
Not ready to make this cranberry orange monkey bread yet? Don’t forget to pin the recipe for later.
When you do make it, please comment and leave me a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below i it totally makes my day!
Cranberry Orange Monkey Bread
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Equipment
- Bundt Cake Pan
- Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
- 24 Frozen Dinner Roll Dough
- 1 cup Brown Sugar, plus ¼ cup
- ½ cup Butter melted
- ⅓ cup Cranberry jelly, plus 2 tablespoons
- 1 Orange zested and juiced
- 2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon Granulated Sugar
Instructions
- Place the rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet to thaw – about 1 hour.24 Frozen Dinner Roll Dough
- Preheat the oven to 350-degrees F. Spray or grease a bundt pan, taking care to get into all the grooves.
- Cut thawed rolls in half and stretch them out into a small circle. Place a ½ teaspoon in the center of the dough, then pinch the edges together to make a little pouch.⅓ cup Cranberry jelly, plus 2 tablespoons
- In a small bowl, combine the white sugar and cinnamon. Dip each roll piece into butter and roll the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place in the bundt pan.½ cup Butter, 2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon, 1 tablespoon Granulated Sugar
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size.
- Remove wrap and bake at 350 degrees F 35-40 minutes. Cool 1 minute and invert onto serving platter.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together ¼ cup brown sugar, the juice and zest from the orange, and 2 tablespoons of cranberry jelly.1 cup Brown Sugar, plus ¼ cup, 1 Orange, ⅓ cup Cranberry jelly, plus 2 tablespoons
- Pour over the hot monkey bread. Let cool 5 minutes before cutting. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.
Notes
- For Thanksgiving, I add 1 pear or apple, peeled and chopped small in between the dough balls.
- Double the cranberry flavor by adding 1 cup whole cranberries. Taste the cranberries - you may want to add just a touch more sugar because cranberries can be tart.
- Give this recipe a tweak by adding more warm spices for a gingerbread flavor. Add 1 teaspoon ginger, ½ teaspoon ground cloves and then add 1 tablespoon of molasses to the brown sugar and cranberry jelly mixture.
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Leighann says
This looks so delicious!
Amy Anderson says
This is so perfect for the holidays! I want to make this for Christmas.
Carly says
So I made this but just did a powdered sugar icing instead of the orange glaze and it was very good.
Maureen says
I think I am going to make this for Christmas morning. Pinned for later! 🙂
Natalie says
You have such yummy recipes!
Ang Paris says
You're so kind, thank you!
Rachel says
I made this for a New Year's day brunch and everyone LOVED it. Super easy and so good!
Samantha Murch says
This is one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted.
Ang Paris says
And it's really SO easy! Perfect for the holidays 🙂