Mohamed Shili Pioneer Woman cinnamon pull-apart bread coats quartered buttermilk biscuits in cinnamon sugar, drenches them in brown sugar butter sauce, and bakes in a bundt pan until golden and sticky in about 55 minutes.
Ree Drummond’s Orange-Vanilla Monkey Bread on Food Network (episode “B-Man and Me”) is the same pull-apart method with a different sugar coating. This version swaps the orange zest for ground cinnamon, using the spice ratio from her famous Cinnamon Rolls recipe to get the warmth right without turning bitter.
The biscuits must be cold when you cut and coat them, straight from the fridge. Room-temperature dough sticks to itself, clumps in the sugar bag, and bakes into a dense mass instead of separating into individual pull-apart pieces. Ree specifies chilled biscuits for exactly this reason.
Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread
Description
Sticky, warm, and loaded with cinnamon in every crevice, this bundt pan bread turns three cans of refrigerated biscuits into a showstopper brunch centerpiece. Pull a piece from the top and the butter-brown sugar glaze stretches between layers.
Ingredients
For the cinnamon sugar coating:
For the biscuits:
For the butter sauce:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven. Set your oven to 350F (180C) and grease a bundt or tube pan with butter or nonstick spray.
- Mix the cinnamon sugar. Combine the granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and a dash of salt in a large zip-top bag. Seal and shake until the cinnamon is evenly distributed, about 10 seconds.
- Cut and coat the biscuits. Open the chilled biscuit cans and cut each biscuit into quarters with kitchen scissors. Drop the pieces into the sugar bag, seal it, and shake until every piece is coated. Pour the coated pieces into the prepared pan.
- Make the butter sauce. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, vanilla, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon until just barely combined, about 30 seconds. Do not overmix.
- Pour and bake. Pour the butter sauce evenly over the biscuit pieces, scraping the pan to get every drop out. Bake until the top turns golden brown, about 25 minutes.
- Cool and flip. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Invert onto a serving plate and let the glaze drip down the sides. Serve warm.
FAQs
Why do the biscuits need to be ice cold before cutting?
Cold dough holds its shape when you cut it into quarters, so each piece stays separate in the sugar bag. Warm biscuits turn gummy and clump together, which means uneven coating and dense pockets in the finished bread.
If your cans sat on the counter while you prepped other things, put them back in the fridge for 15 minutes before opening. Ree calls for chilled biscuits in her original recipe because the whole pull-apart texture depends on it.
Why buttermilk biscuits and not the flaky kind?
Flaky biscuits are built to separate into layers, which sounds appealing until they fall apart in the sugar bag and dissolve in the butter sauce during baking. Buttermilk biscuits hold their structure through coating and baking, so each piece stays intact.
You get clean pull-apart pieces instead of a crumbly mess. Ree specifies “not the flaky kind” in her original monkey bread because she learned that flaky dough cannot survive the sugar-and-sauce treatment.
Can you add pecans or walnuts to this bread?
Scatter about 1/2 cup (60g) of chopped pecans or walnuts into the pan before adding the coated biscuit pieces. They sink to the bottom during baking, so they end up on top when you flip the bread out onto the plate.
Toast the nuts in a dry skillet for about 3 minutes first. Raw nuts steam inside the bread and taste flat, but toasted nuts hold their crunch and add a roasted flavor that pairs well with the cinnamon glaze.
Why let it cool in the pan for exactly 10 to 15 minutes?
The butter sauce needs time to thicken so it clings to the bread instead of running off onto the plate. Flip too early and the glaze pools underneath. Wait longer than 15 minutes and the sugar hardens, gluing the bread to the pan.
That narrow window is when the caramel is thick enough to coat but loose enough to release cleanly. Set a timer so you do not miss it, because chiseling hardened sugar out of a bundt pan is no fun.
How do you store leftover cinnamon pull-apart bread?
Cover it tightly with plastic wrap and keep it at room temperature for up to 2 days. The sugar glaze acts as a moisture barrier, so it stays softer longer than plain bread would.
Reheat individual pieces in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds to soften the glaze again. The oven works too at 300F (150C) for 8 minutes covered in foil, but the microwave is faster when you just want one or two pieces.
