Gluten-Free Monkey Bread

This bread tastes great, but mine needed a lot longer than the bake time you listed. The middle balls were still doughy at 325. Worth the extra wait though.

This is better than any of the keto sweet breads I’ve made. A whole cup of protein powder in the dough had me expecting chalky and dry, so I almost cut it back. Left it alone and the pieces came out soft all the way through. Each pice has a solid amount of protein too. Thank you.

Batch four & the pull-apart texture still gets me. I started letting the brown butter caramel sit about five minutes before drizzling so it soaks in instead of sliding straight to the bottom of the pan. SO much better that way!!! You’ve saved my mornings, Annie.

Genuinely good. One note: the brown butter caramel firms up fast off the heat, so mine sat on top instead of running down between the pieces. I rewarmed it and drizzled in two passes. Thanks.

My daughter has a casein sensitivity so I’ve been adapting a lot of our keto baking dairy-free. I can usually swap coconut oil for butter fine, but I’m stuck on the sour cream here, and honestly not sure the brown butter caramel even translates without real butter. Has anyone done this dairy-free, or is the sour cream doing too much for the dough to swap out?

I rolled the dough balls way too big, so the cinnamon coating was patchy at best. My daughter, who is indifferent to most of what I make, picked off every piece to get to the caramel first. That sauce is the whole thing.

I’d written off monkey bread. Two years keto, I figured the pull-apart texture just needed gluten, end of story. This dough proved that wrong in about five minutes of mixing. Annie, the xanthan gum and protein powder combo in here solved something I couldn’t crack on my own. The brown butter caramel just sealed it. Double batch next Sunday.

My husband didn’t believe this was keto until I showed him the recipe.

The brown butter smell coming off the oven at 325 on a Sunday is basically my alarm clock. Nobody in the house needs to be asked twice. I’m usually still in pajamas just monitoring. I’ve been portioning the pieces into a container while they’re still a little warm and they hold up soft through at least Wednesday, no microwave needed. One thing: 16 servings is a true 16, not 12 big ones, so I do a batch and a half when I need to stretch it to Friday.

I keep bracing for the Bundt flip to go sideways. Five batches in, it’s been clean every time. If you let it sit about ten minutes before pulling pieces off, the cinnamon coating gets a little crispier around the edges.

monkey bread on keto, never thought I’d see the day

Cinnamon coating and I’m eight years old again.

Smaller dough balls are the move, way smaller than you’d think. The cinnamon coats every piece evenly and the pull-apart is so much more satisfying. Also tried an extra tablespoon of sour cream and the texture came out noticeably softer.

Classic monkey bread is a yeast project, so I expected almond flour dough to be a pain. Wasn’t. Dense and workable, pulled apart so cleanly I kept waiting for the catch. The cinnamon coating held and I’m already dreaming about the caramel sauce ratio. Does the caramel hold in the fridge or need a quick reheat to come back?

Added a pinch of cardamom to the cinnamon coating and it paired really well with the brown butter caramel. That combination has a warmth that’s almost chai-adjacent without being obvious about it. I’ll keep doing it. Only thing: center dough balls came out softer than the outer ones. I liked them better, but rotating the pan halfway through seems to help if you want more even results.

Never put protein powder in dough before and kept waiting for it to fall apart, but the balls rolled perfectly and the whole thing slid out of the Bundt pan clean. Then the cinnamon got all sticky from the brown butter caramel and I just stood there.

First time using protein powder in baking and I second-guessed every step. The pieces pulled apart just like they should and the cinnamon coating stuck to every single one.

Tried two other keto monkey bread recipes before landing on this one. Both came out dense and kind of gummy in the center, nothing like the real thing. This one actually pulls apart the way it should, and the cinnamon coating sticks to the dough instead of sliding off into the pan. I think the protein powder is doing something structural because the texture is completely different from the other versions I made.

I was skeptical the almond flour dough would actually pull apart cleanly instead of crumbling, but it holds together just like it should. The brown butter caramel sealed it for me.

I’ve been keto for about two years but I’m not much of a baker, so I kept putting this one off. Finally made it last weekend and the dough came together so fast it kind of threw me (I kept second-guessing whether I was doing the xanthan gum right). Rolling all the little balls took longer than I expected, but once they were in the Bundt pan coated in that cinnamon sugar and I poured the brown butter caramel over the top, I knew I’d been overthinking this for months. The pull-apart texture was exactly what I was hoping for, and the caramel soaked into the seams between pieces perfectly. Already thinking about making this for a Sunday brunch with friends. Can you roll the dough balls the night before and refrigerate them, or does the whole thing need to be assembled and baked in one go?