Chocolate-Peanut Butter Monkey Bread

Hold on to your sweet tooth!

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Monkey Bread
Photo:

Antonis Achilleos; Prop Stylist: Caleb Clarke; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall

Active Time:
25 mins
Total Time:
1 hrs 30 mins
Servings:
18

This monkey bread is stuffed with chocolate-peanut butter cups, baked in a sugary butter glaze, and then drizzled with more chocolate and peanut butter. In a word, it's decadent.

Tender crescent dough envelopes miniature peanut butter cups, and each of the doughy bundles is stacked high in a Bundt pan. We liked crescent dough for this recipe instead of biscuit dough, because the dough is extra buttery, flaky, and tender.

A caramel sauce is poured over the dough pieces before the whole thing is put in the oven. The sauce caramelizes as it bakes, so you get hint of caramel in each bite. The butter sauce also gets into all the crevices and gaps between the dough balls to create a crisp outer layer and making it easier to pull apart.

But if that wasn't rich enough, once the monkey bread is flipped out of the Bundt pan, it's drizzled with melted chocolate and peanut butter, which help to drive home the peanut butter cup flavors of this breakfast or brunch treat. Be sure to eat it warm, when the cups and drizzle is still warm and melty.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Monkey Bread

Antonis Achilleos; Prop Stylist: Caleb Clarke; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall

Ingredients

  • Baking spray with flour

  • 3 (8-oz.) can refrigerated crescent dough sheets

  • 36 miniature peanut butter cup candies, unwrapped (such as Reese's) (from 1 [17.6-oz.] pkg.)

  • 1/2 cup (4 oz.) unsalted butter

  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

  • 2 oz. 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate bar, chopped (about 1/3 cup)

  • 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

  • Pinch of table salt

  • Chopped miniature peanut butter cup candies

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously coat a 10- to 12-cup fluted Bundt pan with baking spray, and set aside.

  2. Unroll dough sheets on a clean work surface, and cut each sheet into 12 (about 3- x 2 1/2-inch) pieces (36 total pieces). Place 1 candy, top side down, in center of each dough piece.

    making chocolate-peanut butter monkey bread pieces

    Antonis Achilleos; Prop Stylist: Caleb Clarke; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall

    Fold dough over candy (do not stretch dough), and gently pinch edges to seal around candy. Evenly layer dough balls into prepared pan, and set aside.

    filling bundt pan with monkey bread pieces

    Antonis Achilleos; Prop Stylist: Caleb Clarke; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall

  3. Heat butter and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low; cook, stirring often, until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour hot butter mixture evenly over dough balls in prepared pan.

    pouring butter-sugar mixture over monkey bread in bundt pan

    Antonis Achilleos; Prop Stylist: Caleb Clarke; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall

  4. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown on top and bubbling, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Invert pan onto a plate, and let cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

    baked monkey bread in bundt pan

    Antonis Achilleos; Prop Stylist: Caleb Clarke; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall

  5. In a small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate and peanut butter on MEDIUM (50% power), until smooth, 1 minute, 30 seconds to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Stir in salt.

    melted chocolate with monkey bread

    Antonis Achilleos; Prop Stylist: Caleb Clarke; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall

    Drizzle glaze over cooled monkey bread. Cool for 10 minutes; garnish with chopped peanut butter cups. Pull apart to serve.

    chocolate-peanut butter monkey bread on a round plate

    Antonis Achilleos; Prop Stylist: Caleb Clarke; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall

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