This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure for details.
Hi Bold Bakers!
I love pizza, no matter what shape or form it comes in. Because of that, I made it my mission to come up with as many different ways to consume my favorite treat as possible. Normally, Monkey Bread is sweet — but Bigger Bolder Baking does not do normal!
We think outside the box here. That’s how in a moment of crazy baking I came up with this recipe for a Big & Bold Pizza Monkey Bread!
Monkey Bread is also known as pull apart, or tear and share, bread. The reason being is that everyone can pull off chunks and help themselves. It is a great dish to make for parties or get togethers because it’s made to be shared easily.
And what I like most is you can make it the day before and bake it off when you need it.
How To Begin Making Pizza Monkey Bread
My dough is a soft bread roll dough, similar to dinner rolls. It is a lovely, simple recipe that can be made on a machine or by hand.
Now, I just want to warn you, I have seen people using store bought biscuits and pizza dough to make Monkey Bread. That’s ok, we will convert them later. All those options are equally delicious but I would be doing you and myself an injustice if I didn’t show you a homemade dough.
Getting The Perfect Bake
This bread is like an upside down bread, so when baking it you want to get a lovely, golden brown bread on top to ensure that the dough on the bottom of the tin is getting nicely baked as well.
You often see a Monkey Bread with a lighter colored bottom which is totally normal, you just want to make sure it is fully baked all the way through. Leave it in for the full time and resist the urge open the oven while baking.
Make sure to try out my favorite 5 Minute Pizza Sauce recipe. And looking for more Pizza Recipes? Try my Best-Ever Pizza Dough, Microwave Mug Pizza and Dessert Pizza!
Try These Recipes!
Watch The Recipe Video!
Pizza Monkey Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 ¼ cups (1lb1oz/461g) all-purpose flour
- 2 ¼ teaspoons (6g/1/4 oz) active dried yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 ¼ cups (10floz/280ml) milk
- 2 tablespoons (1oz/28g) butter, cubed
- 2 cups (16oz/450g) pizza sauce/tomato sauce
- 20 slices pepperoni , chopped
- 3 cloves garlic , crushed
- 2 ½ cups (8oz/225g) mozzerella, grated
- Bunch of fresh basil , chopped
Instructions
To Make the Dough:
- Mix the flour, yeast, and salt together in a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook.
- In a measuring jug, heat the milk and butter until lukewarm and the butter is melted.
- Turn the machine on low and slowly add the milk mixture. Mix for 2 minutes to wake up the yeast. Increase the speed to medium and mix for roughly 6-8 minutes, or until the dough is shiny and smooth.
- When your dough is ready, take it off the machine and coat the dough and bowl with olive oil (or any flavorless oil). This will help it rise in the bowl.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled, 1 ½ -2 hours.
To Make the Pizza filling:
- In a large bowl add the tomato sauce, pepperoni, garlic, cheese, and basil. Set aside in the fridge until you are ready for it.
- Once the dough has proofed, gently remove the dough from the bowl, knocking out the air.
- Using a bench scraper or knife, cut the dough into medium and small sized pieces. If you cut them too big the monkey bread can seem a bit doughy.
- Gently stir the cut dough into the pizza sauce, coating every piece of dough in tomato sauce.
- Grease a 10 inch Bundt pan or cake tin with butter. Fill the pan with the monkey bread dough and even out the dough with a spatula.
- Cover the Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and let the monkey bread rise for 45 minutes or until puffy and they have risen up to the top of the pan. (At this point you can cover it and pop it in the fridge overnight to be baked the off the next day fresh.)
- Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 35-40 minutes or until the top is beautifully brown.
- Cool the monkey bread in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on a platter or large plate and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes. Enjoy straight away!
Recipe Notes
Hi Gemma
How you’re doing? I tried this recipe and it wasn’t just good. It was as you said “insanely good”. I just can’t believe that taking all the traditional ingredients of pizza we can create something that is not at all like it but in a league of it’s own.
We devoured it as soon as it came out of the oven and got burnt tongues.But we didn’t care.
All in all a very delicious recipe and as you said the more the cheese the better
To infinity and beyond.
Absolutely love this! I want to give a tip; if you use a bread machine (like I did), add an extra tablespoon of milk and an extra tablespoon of butter. Bread machines tend to dry out the dough (I don’t know why) and this will prevent that. Also, take the dough out after the first rise.
Awesome recipe. I used to bake as a child, and started again recently. Your recipe with tomato sauce was the first one I started with (I prepared my own marinara spiked with Sriracha, based on another recipe I saw on Youtube). The picture I posted yesterday is one I prepared with Pesto and I also added bell peppers and olives. Thanks Gemma, you’ve made my weekends a lot more fun, and my family now says they don’t want to eat out, given all the awesome treats we can make at home!
Hi I’m doing my head in with the measurements. When you say cups, I don’t know if you mean imperial (284ml), US (236ml) or metric (250ml). Given you’re Irish but living in America. So I went to use the weight and mls, but for the milk 10 floz and 1 1/4 US cups is about 295ml, not the 280ml you list. So now is the flour weight proportional to the 280mls milk or to the other 2 milk units you gave? And given flour weighs different amounts in different countries…. And you say you need to be precise with baking.… Read more »
This looks amazing & my oldest son loooooves pizza! I’d like to try this. As a short cut, can I use store bought pizza dough (like from Trader Joe’s in the bag)?
can i use can bisquit dough for this receipe if so how many cans
I’m going to be making this for my aunt and her kids this weekend on our visit. One of the kids is gluten intolerant. Can I use gluten free all purpose flower?
This was too wet on the inside when the outside was done. I flipped it over to bake again without the pan to crisp up the bottom but it was still too wet when pieces were pulled off. I eventually had to tear the whole thing apart to crisp the pieces. They eventually got crisp but the flavor was meh. I would have been embarrassed if I brought it to a party.
Wonderful alternative to traditional pizza!
Hi Gemma, I really want to try this recipe for a party, as I have always loved your recipes before, but how long can I keep this dough in fridge? Can I make this dough 2-3 days before and place it in a fridge?