Blueberry Monkey Bread

A delicious blueberry twist on monkey bread with a fresh blueberry sauce layered between gluten-free dough balls rolled in cinnamon sugar and topped with a dreamy dairy-free cream cheese glaze. Perfect for a sweet brunch treat or easy heathy-ish dessert!

SPONSORED BY SUNBUTTER

---

There is nothing more delicious than doughy balls rolled in cinnamon sugar baked to sticky glazed pull-apart perfection, which is also known as monkey bread. It’s like bite-sized cinnamon rolls in brunch-y bundt cake form, and it’s one of my favorite things to bake (or microwave!). But I don’t think there is nearly enough creativity around this concept, because if you think about it the flavor variations are kind of…endless. So with June just around the corner, I was dreaming of a summer spin and this BLUEBERRY version hit the spot.

We are still starting with fluffy balls of baked dough and rolling them in cinnamon sugar, but we are adding a sweet lemon-y blueberry layer into the mix along with fresh berries and a little extra tang on top with a dairy-free cream cheese glaze. I’m also a big fan of individual sized monkey breads since it’s a pull apart treat so sticky finger-licking is often involved, so we are baking them in mini bundts or ramekins instead of one big bundt cake.

How To Make Blueberry Monkey Bread

Monkey bread traditionally starts with a yeasted dough, but for the sake of keeping this recipe easy and gluten-free I decided not to go that direction. So this is just a simple one-bowl gluten-free dough recipe utilizing baking powder for rise, and it’s completely vegan too without any eggs or dairy needed.

The Easy Blueberry Sauce

I made the initial test batches of this recipe with store-bought blueberry jam, but the flavor just wasn’t as bright and fresh as I wanted. So I opted to make my own quick stovetop blueberry sauce instead, but you can absolutely use a jar of blueberry jam to save time too.

I prefer to use frozen blueberries for this recipe, but fresh will work too they just don’t break down and get as juicy when heated. Wild frozen blueberries are especially sweet and small and delicious here. You will start by cooking the blueberries with a little bit of sweetener of choice (I used maple syrup, but any kind of liquid or granulated sweetener is fine) until they are bubbling and softening. Then add in a slurry of water, lemon juice, and starch (corn, tapioca, or arrowroot) to thicken up the sauce to just the right spoonable consistency.

I recommend doing this step first so it has plenty of time to cool, because it will thicken significantly as it cools. You can even make it the day before and keep it in the refrigerator overnight.

The Gluten-Free Monkey Bread Dough

This vegan and gluten-free dough comes together quickly in one bowl, but it does need to chill for about 1 hour to make it easy to roll into balls. If you don’t chill they will be too sticky, but if you were to add more flour you would end up with a dry monkey bread after baking. So the 1 hour of chilling is well worth it. The ingredients you will need are:

• Unsweetened applesauce. This adds a lot of moisture to the dough, but don’t worry it won’t make for a gummy texture like some gluten-free recipes do. You could substitute with unsweetened dairy-free yogurt.
• SunButter. Unlike most monkey bread recipes that contain butter, we are using Natural SunButter instead which keeps the recipe both dairy and nut free but still really rich and tasty. I love the natural variety for baking as it’s just lightly sweetened and salted.
• Maple syrup. Or whatever liquid sweetener you prefer, honey or agave work too. There isn’t much sweetness in the dough, most of that comes from the cinnamon sugar coating and blueberry sauce.
• Coconut oil. Coconut oil solidifies in the fridge, so this is what helps the dough firm up and become roll-able during that 1 hour chill. It also prevents any gummy-ness from happening with the applesauce or gluten-free flour.
• Flax egg. This helps bring some elasticity to the dough so this gluten-free recipe has more of that gluten-ish texture.
• Gluten-free flour. A gluten-free mix is best here, I don’t recommend any substitutions.
• Baking powder and salt. For rise and flavor.

Assembling The Single-Serving Sized Monkey Breads

Mini bundt pans flip out looking really cute, but ramekins are the easier way to go in my opinion. I haven’t tested this recipe as one full bread, but you could try baking it in a loaf pan altogether. I’d recommend adding 5-10 minutes to the total bake time if you opt for the loaf pan route.

• Step 1: Grease the pans or ramekins well. That blueberry sauce is sticky, so especially if you are using mini bundt pans you want to make sure you grease them really well with a nonstick spray or oil.
• Step 2: Pinch off pieces of dough, roll into balls, then roll in cinnamon sugar. Place in a single layer in the bottom of the ramekins. I usually have about 6 little balls per layer (5 around the outside, one in the middle) so you can get an idea for sizing.
• Step 3: Spoon the blueberry sauce over top of the first layer. About 1 tablespoon total per ramekin, but spread it evenly so each ball of dough is coated. with some dripping down in between the dough balls.
• Step 4: Repeat to create a second layer of dough balls.
• Step 5: Repeat spooning the blueberry sauce over top of the second layer, and squeeze in a few fresh berries between the dough balls if you wish.

Note! If you are using mini bundt pans, flip this process upside down. So you will start with a layer of blueberry sauce + fresh berries > dough balls > blueberry sauce > dough balls because they will be flipped out and served upside down from how you layer them and you want blueberry sauce on top not bottom. Hopefully that makes sense!

Baking and Serving

The single-serving size does speed up the baking a bit, they will be ready in about 25 minutes. Or you could try the microwave method similar to this recipe if you are really looking for speed. I do recommend cooling briefly – about 15 minutes – before flipping out of the mini bundt pans or glazing and serving in ramekins. The cream cheese glaze is completely optional, there is already lots of gooey goodness going on without it. But it’s pretty simple to whip up and adds some extra sweet sticky goodness!

More Easy Blueberry Treats You’ll Love

• Single-Serve Blueberry Brownie
• Blueberry Frozen Yogurt
• No-Bake Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes
• Blueberry Crunch Icebox Cake

Print

CLICK BELOW TO PIN