Fruitcake Monkey Bread Recipe

This festive monkey bread never lasts long once it comes out of the oven. With a taste reminiscent of fruitcake and the ease of monkey bread…it’s a favorite for Christmas morning.

Course Breakfast, brunch

Prep Time 16

Proofing time 2

Servings servings

Calories 324kcal

Ingredients

1 loaf Rhodes sweet bread thawed according to the pkg instructions
1 cup dried fruit
Brandy or white grape juice, enough to cover the dried fruit
⅓ cup Maraschino cherries cut in half
½ cup walnuts or pecans cut in half
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
¼ cup butter melted

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a bundt pan or tube pan.
Soak the dried fruit in brandy (or white grape juice), just enough to cover the fruit while you are preparing the buttered dough balls.
Divide the thawed sweet bread into about 2 dozen balls (around 1.5 inches round).
Stir the cinnamon and sugar together.
Dip about ¾ of the balls into melted butter, and roll into the cinnamon & sugar mixture.
Place ½ of the soaked fruit (keep out as much of the liquid as possible), walnuts, and cherries on the bottom of the greased bundt pan.
Place the dipped balls in the pan on top of the fruit.
Spread the remaining soaked fruit (without the liquid —but save it!), walnuts, and cherries on the dipped balls.
Top with the remaining dipped balls spread out as evenly as possible.
Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours or until doubled in size. Note: Most monkey bread dough only takes about 1 hour to rise in size but because this recipe causes the bread dough to be extra wet…it takes longer.
When the dough has doubled in size, bake for 45 minutes or until light brown. Be sure to cook this dough until it is nicely browned…you want to avoid undercooked bread.
Slowly drizzle the brandy that remains from the fruit over the hot bread. Be sure to let it soak in between applications.

Notes

Note: If you have the ability to give the fruit an hour to soak, it's tastier. But I often don't have the time and find that soaking for that quick 10 minutes is still yummy and works great.

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