Monkey bread has taken the world by a storm– it’s easy to make, delicious and so satisfying. There are lots of ways to make monkey bread, but our personal favorite is this sweet version of Cherry Cheesecake Monkey Bread baked on the Traeger. Throw it together this weekend for a quick and easy brunch or a decadent post-BBQ dessert.
WHAT IS MONKEY BREAD??
Monkey bread is a decadent and fun way to serve a starch for a breakfast, snack or dessert. Created by baking together balls of dough (in this case, flaky biscuit dough) with a variety of ingredients (think butter, sugar, pie filling, chocolate or savory with butter, garlic, cheese, etc). It comes together in quick order with some easy store-bought ingredients and bakes in about 30 minutes on the Traeger Grill. Put together this family favorite– Traeger Baked Cherry Cheesecake Monkey Bread and let everyone dig in with their fingers– just as the name suggests!
TYPES OF MONKEY BREAD TO MAKE
This is a recipe for tried-and-true sweet and somewhat sticky Monkey Bread. Which is what people often think of when they hear of the dish. But you can definitely make Monkey Bread that is savory instead of sweet– just switch out some of the ingredients and give yourself some creative license.
For example, you could make this Monkey Bread on the Traeger with a savory twist– adding goat cheese instead of cream cheese, my Garlic Junkie seasoning in place of the Maple Sugar and perhaps chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil rather than the cherry pie filling. Just be sure to use lots of butter– because that is what makes this recipe sticky and delicious!
HOW TO KEEP MONKEY BREAD SIMPLE
Making Monkey Bread in the Traeger should be fun, quick and simple. In order to ensure that with every version of Monkey Bread that we’ve made, we always start with refrigerated prepared dough. Cans of Pillsbury biscuit dough is the perfect starting place. With about 8 biscuits per can, you get 32 dough balls per package and that can fill up a small bundt pan with little effort. We usually use 2 cans of dough per recipe so that the pan fills up nicely and the finished Monkey Bread has a good shape once it’s baked and unmolded.
You can also buy Monkey Bread kits at the grocery store– we’ve seen a sweet version and a savory version– but the minimal effort involved in cutting the can of biscuits yourself doesn’t make that shortcut all that useful. Plus, it’s fun to experiment with flavors and options. So perhaps buy a kit once so you can have the full Monkey Bread experience, and then take the reigns for your own creativity!!
PRIMARY INGREDIENTS
- Flaky biscuit dough
- Graham crackers
- Spiceology Maple Sugar
- Butter
- Cherry pie filling
- Cream cheese
- Powdered sugar
- Heavy cream
WHY COOKING MONKEY BREAD ON THE TRAEGER WORKS
Monkey bread is a fun and simple dish to make on the Traeger, which is perfect for a family like ours. With two toddlers underfoot, it’s imperative that recipes are quick, easy, delicious and affordable. But we also strive to make fun, interesting and tasty recipes that anyone would enjoy– not just our family. This is one of those recipes– Cherry Cheesecake Monkey Bread combines some of the memorable flavors of cherry cheesecake into this fun and hands-on dessert.
The reality is that when using cans of flaky biscuit dough as your starting point, the sky is the limit for Monkey Bread. You can make all sorts of sweet ones (fruit, chocolate, traditional) or savory (pizza, cheesy, garlic, etc). This is a great one to start with– it takes about 15 minutes to assemble and bakes in 30 minutes and with little effort you’ll have a fun and delicious dessert (or snack) that your kids will love pulling apart.
STEP-BY-STEP
- Preheat your Traeger Grill to 375*.
- Generously grease a fluted bundt pan with butter or shortening.
- Open the biscuit dough cans and cut the biscuits into quarters.
- Roll lightly to form a ball out of each piece, then set aside.
- Cut the cream cheese into 1/2 inch cubes, reserving 2 tbsp.
- Melt the butter.
- Place the graham crackers in a plastic bag and crush them with a meat mallet or rolling pin.
- Transfer graham cracker crumbs to a bowl
- Add the Maple Sugar to the crumbs and mix to combine.
- Dip each dough ball in the melted butter and then in the graham cracker crumb mixture.
- Place the dipped balls in the prepared pan, creating an even layer.
- Add 1/2 of the cherry pie filling.
- Top with 1/2 of the cream cheese pieces.
- Repeat with more dipped dough balls, pie filling and cream cheese.
- Add one final layer of dipped dough balls atop the filing.
- Press the top gently until even.
- Sprinkle with remaining butter and graham cracker crumbs.
- Place the filled bundt pan in your preheated grill (place it on a cookie sheet to catch drips if you desire).
- Bake the cherry cheesecake monkey bread in your Traeger for 25-35 minutes, until golden brown on top.
- Remove the pan from the grill and allow to cool briefly (5 minutes).
- While the pan cools, make the frosting by combining the reserved cream cheese and heavy cream until smooth, then adding powdered sugar and whisking until well combined. Add more cream as needed until the frosting is pourable.
- Invert the bundt pan on a plate or platter and unsold the cherry cheesecake monkey bread.
- Pour the frosting all over the ring and serve while warm!
Cherry Cheesecake Monkey Bread ingredients 
Make layers of dough, cream cheese and cherries 
Assembled monkey bread
ALTERNATE RECIPES/PRODUCT LINKS
Here are some other baking recipes to try out in your Traeger:
There are also some great baking recipes in my cookbook, which you can pick up here!
Products used in this cook:
In this recipe, we used the following products:
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Traeger Baked Cherry Cheesecake Monkey Bread
Equipment
- Traeger grill
- Knife and cutting board
- Bundt pan
- Bowls and whisk
- Ziplock bag and rolling pin or meat mallet
Ingredients
- 2 cans flaky biscuit dough
- 1 sleeve graham crackers
- 1 cup Spiceology Maple Sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 can cherry pie filling
- 1 block cream cheese
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat your Traeger Grill to 375*.
- Generously grease a fluted bundt pan with butter or shortening.
- Open the biscuit dough cans and cut the biscuits into quarters.
- Roll lightly to form a ball out of each piece, then set aside.
- Cut the cream cheese into 1/2 inch cubes, reserving 2 tbsp.
- Melt the butter.
- Place the graham crackers in a plastic bag and crush them with a meat mallet or rolling pin.
- Transfer graham cracker crumbs to a bowl
- Add the Maple Sugar to the crumbs and mix to combine.
- Dip each dough ball in the melted butter and then in the graham cracker crumb mixture.
- Place the dipped balls in the prepared pan, creating an even layer.
- Add 1/2 of the cherry pie filling.
- Top with 1/2 of the cream cheese pieces.
- Repeat with more dipped dough balls, pie filling and cream cheese.
- Add one final layer of dipped dough balls atop the filing.
- Press the top gently until even.
- Sprinkle with remaining butter and graham cracker crumbs.
- Place the filled bundt pan in your preheated grill (place it on a cookie sheet to catch drips if you desire).
- Bake the cherry cheesecake monkey bread in your Traeger for 25-35 minutes, until golden brown on top.
- Remove the pan from the grill and allow to cool briefly (5 minutes).
- While the pan cools, make the frosting by combining the reserved cream cheese and heavy cream until smooth, then adding powdered sugar and whisking until well combined. Add more cream as needed until the frosting is smooth.
- Invert the bundt pan on a plate and unmold the Cherry Cheesecake Monkey Bread.
- Top the bread with the prepared frosting and serve while warm.
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