Monkey bread muffins are everything you love about the classic pull-apart breakfast treat, baked right into individual portions in a muffin tin. Each one is loaded with pillowy biscuit pieces tossed in cinnamon sugar, drizzled with a buttery brown sugar caramel, and finished with a bright orange glaze. No bundt pan, no sharing required.
This recipe is perfect for weekend brunch, holiday mornings, or anytime you want something that feels a little special without a lot of effort. If you love easy baked treats, you might also want to check out blueberry banana muffins or buttermilk cornbread for more crowd-pleasers that come together fast.
In This Post
Why this Works
Using refrigerator biscuit dough is the not-so-secret shortcut that makes these muffins incredibly approachable. You skip all the from-scratch dough work and get straight to the fun part, which is coating little dough balls in spiced sugar and watching them bake into golden, gooey perfection.
Baking them in a muffin tin instead of a traditional bundt pan means every single serving gets that coveted caramelized edge and soft, pull-apart center. No more fighting over the corners.
Heather’s Recipe Notes
Drawing from 20 years of recipe development and my time co-founding a spice company, here’s what makes this recipe worth making exactly as written.
- Use small cans of biscuits. The recipe calls for 2 small cans of buttermilk biscuits. Each biscuit gets cut into 6 pieces and rolled into balls, so you end up with plenty to fill 12 muffin cups with 8 pieces each.
- Pumpkin pie spice is my go-to here. It adds a little more depth than plain cinnamon, but ground cinnamon works perfectly if that’s what you have on hand.
- Don’t skip the brown sugar butter drizzle. This is what creates the sticky caramel bottom (which becomes the top when you flip them out). Every drop counts.
- Let them cool 5 minutes before removing. I know it’s hard to wait, but this gives the caramel a moment to set so the muffins hold together instead of falling apart in the tin.
- Add the glaze right before serving. The orange glaze is thin and soaks in quickly, so drizzle it on just before you’re ready to eat for the best flavor and texture.
Maillard Reaction
That deep golden-brown color on your monkey bread muffins is not just good looks, it’s flavor. The Maillard reaction kicks in as the biscuit dough and sugar hit the heat of the oven, creating hundreds of new flavor compounds that give the crust its caramelized, slightly nutty depth. Without it, you’d have pale, doughy bites with none of that irresistible sticky-sweet richness.
The brown sugar butter drizzle accelerates this process beautifully. Sugar browns faster than plain dough, which is why the edges and bottoms of these muffins develop that almost candy-like crust while the insides stay soft and pillowy. It’s the contrast between those two textures that makes this recipe so satisfying.
Ingredients in Monkey Bread Muffins
- Buttermilk Biscuits – from a refrigerator tube is the easiest way to make these muffins quickly. I like the buttermilk or regular biscuits for this recipe since you’ll be adding spices and the orange glaze.
- Sugar – white granulated, light brown sugar, and powdered sugar are all used in this super fast recipe.
- Spices – pumpkin pie spice or ground cinnamon goes hand in hand with Monkey Bread recipes and is used to coat the biscuit balls before baking.
- Butter – unsalted butter melted.
- Orange – zest and juice give the glaze a tart and delicious flavor.
Subs & Variations
- Swap the glaze. A simple vanilla glaze, cream cheese drizzle, or maple icing all work wonderfully in place of the orange version.
- Add crunch. Scatter chopped pecans or walnuts into the muffin cups before adding the dough balls for a little texture contrast.
- Try a different spice blend. Chai spice or cardamom give these a cozy, seasonal twist. You can find my [INTERNAL LINK: chai spice blend] recipe on the site.
- Mix in dried fruit. Dried cranberries, raisins, or finely diced apple tucked between the layers add a fruity chew that pairs really well with the orange glaze.
- Use crescent roll dough. If buttermilk biscuits aren’t available, crescent roll dough cut into small pieces works as a slightly sweeter, flakier alternative.
How to Make Monkey Bread in a Muffin Tin
Tips for Storing
- Store completely cooled muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
- Refrigerate glazed muffins for up to 5 days. The glaze may soak in further, but the flavor is still great.
- Reheat individual muffins in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds to bring back that fresh-baked gooey texture.
- Freeze baked, unglazed muffins in a freezer-safe bag for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight and warm in a 300F oven for about 10 minutes before glazing and serving.
- If you plan to make these ahead for a holiday morning, bake and freeze ahead of time. Morning-of reheating is a total time saver.
People Also Ask
Yes! You can bake them the night before and store them in an airtight container. Reheat in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds and add the glaze fresh before serving. You can also freeze them for up to 2 months.
Refrigerator buttermilk biscuits work best here. The small cans (not the jumbo or flaky layer variety) give you the right size and texture. Avoid flaky layered biscuits since they don’t roll into balls as easily.
Muffin liners are strongly recommended for this recipe since the caramel can stick. If you skip the liners, grease the tin very well with butter or nonstick spray and let the muffins cool a full 5 minutes before removing.
Absolutely. A simple homemade drop biscuit or buttermilk biscuit dough works well. Just make sure the dough is sturdy enough to roll into balls without sticking too much to your hands.
This usually happens when the caramel cools too long in the tin and hardens before you remove the muffins. Five minutes of cooling is the sweet spot. Any longer and the sugar sets up and grips the pan or liner.
Yes, easily. Just use two muffin tins and double all the ingredients. Bake both pans at the same time on separate oven racks, rotating halfway through for even browning.
More Recipes We Love
- Banana Bread Muffins
- Butternut Squash Biscuits
- Double Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins
- Whole Wheat Banana Muffins
- Banana Crumb Muffins
Monkey Bread Muffins
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Ingredients
- 2 small canned buttermilk biscuits, each biscuit cut into 6 pieces, rolled into balls
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice, or ground cinnamon
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter, 1 stick
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
For the Glaze:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 large orange, zested and finely chopped
- 2 tbsp orange juice, fresh
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with papers and set aside.
- Cut the 2 small canned buttermilk biscuits into 6 pieces and roll into balls.
- In a small bowl mix the 2/3 cup granulated sugar and 2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice together.
- Toss the biscuit balls in the sugar mixture and add 8 balls to each muffin cup. Sprinkle evenly with any remaining spiced sugar.
- Melt 8 tbsp unsalted butter and stir in 1/3 cup brown sugar. Drizzle evenly over the muffins.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes in the pan before removing.
- Meanwhile, mix the glaze ingredients (1/2 cup powdered sugar, zest of 1 large orange, 2 tbsp orange juice, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste) together with a whisk and pour evenly over each muffin. Serve immediately.
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Notes
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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Hi! I’m Heather
I’m Heather, a recipe developer and content creator based in Vancouver, Washington. I started Farmgirl Gourmet in 2006 because I believed weeknight dinners shouldn’t be boring and gourmet shouldn’t mean complicated. I’m also the co-founder of Spiceology, so safe to say I think about food for a living. Stick around for recipes that actually make it into your regular rotation.
Do you cut each biscuit into 6 pieces?
Yes that’s correct, each biscuit into 6 equal parts. I updated the recipe directions to be more clear. Thanks for letting me know. ~heather
I really love this recipe and hope you will too!
Wow… easy and great tasting. Love it!
Wow! Pinning these so that I can remember to make them for a special occasion sometime! Yummy!!
Hmmm…. that neighbor should have sampled these – just saying.
I love the orange glaze, genius!
oh my dear, you POUR the butter in! I thought I was crzy by dipping each ball in butter, but this is gorgeously insane!!! love it!