Vegan Crunchy Monkey Bread
After a long and exhausting week, I look forward to a big, relaxing breakfast on the weekend! The smell of fresh coffee, crispy croissants with chocolate spread, and cornflakes with oat milk immediately put me at ease. There's nothing better than spending half of Sunday leisurely at the table, surrounded by delicious food. Since I don't like leaving my apartment in the morning to grab my beloved croissants, I enjoy baking them fresh myself using ready-made croissant dough. But instead of the classic crescent shape, I make Monkey Bread! Have you heard of this fantastic treat? It's made of small filled dough balls coated in sugar and cinnamon and baked together in a pan. You can pull apart one warm, delicious piece at a time and enjoy it when it's done. Perfect for a weekend brunch!
For this recipe, I rolled out the dough in the morning, filled it with chocolate spread, and added a piece of Ritter Sport's new Double Crunch chocolate. This flavor is brand new in stores and my favorite among the six vegan Ritter Sport varieties! It combines creamy vegan milk chocolate with cornflakes and roasted corn bits for the perfect sweet, salty, and crunchy mix. By the way, all Ritter Sport chocolate is 100% sustainably certified and fully traceable. Have you spotted the new Double Crunch chocolate in your supermarket yet? You can find more info here: Double Crunch.
To add even more crunch, I top the baked Monkey Bread with melted chocolate and cornflakes – so good! You can easily find ready-made croissant dough at your local supermarket, and the rest of the ingredients come together quickly. If this has got you craving a crunchy, chocolatey breakfast, go for it!
Vegan Crunchy Monkeybread
Ingredients
For the Monkey Bread:
- 700 g (1.5 lb) ready-made dough for vegan croissants
- 200 g (7 oz) vegan chocolate (e.g., Double Crunch by Ritter Sport)
- 5 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 200 g (7 oz) vegan chocolate spread
- 50 g (1.75 oz) cornflakes
- 50 g (0.33 sticks) vegan butter
- vegan butter for greasing
- flour for dusting
Additionally:
- 200 g (7 oz) vegan milk chocolate
- 50 g (1.75 oz) cornflakes
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180 °C / 360 °F (convection heat). Grease a loaf pan with vegan butter and dust it with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. If needed, bring the croissant dough to room temperature so it’s soft enough to roll. Roll out the dough and cut it into the pre-marked triangles. Then, halve these triangles again to create 24 small triangles.
Break the vegan crunch chocolate into 24 small pieces. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Adjust the sugar-to-cinnamon ratio according to taste. Place about one teaspoon of vegan chocolate spread and a piece of chocolate in the center of each croissant triangle, then carefully wrap the dough around the filling and shape it into a sealed ball with your hands.
Melt the vegan butter. Roll each croissant ball first in the melted butter and then in the sugar-cinnamon mixture until fully coated. Place the coated balls in the loaf pan. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces, adding more chocolate spread or sugar-cinnamon mix if needed. As you layer the balls, sprinkle some cornflakes between the layers for added crunch.
Bake the Monkey Bread at 180 °C / 360 °F (convection heat) for about 25 minutes, until it’s golden brown and cooked through but not overly dark. Remove it from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes before lifting it from the loaf pan. You can let it cool completely or garnish it while still slightly warm.
Roughly chop the vegan milk chocolate and melt it in a water bath. Use a fork to drizzle half the melted chocolate over the Monkey Bread, sprinkle with cornflakes, and then drizzle the remaining chocolate.
