Slow Cooker Cranberry Orange Monkey Bread Recipe
This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. Please Read Our Disclosure PolicyWhether you’re making a casual family brunch or hosting a fabulous holiday get-together, this Slow Cooker Cranberry Orange Monkey Bread Recipe just might be that easy fall treat you’re looking for. Loaded with the sweet and tart flavors of the season, it will be gobbled up in no time.
This post is sponsored by Crock-Pot® brand. As always, all opinions are my own.
You may remember that last week my friends over at Crock-Pot® brand challenged me to come up with new and creative ways to use my slow cooker to prepare treats to serve my friends and family this holiday season. I kicked things off with my Slow Cooker Thanksgiving Sangria (which so many of your seemed to love). Today, I’m back with this delightful dessert.
I knew a monkey bread recipe could be made in a slow cooker, so I decided to put an inspired spin on the classic by inviting cranberries and oranges to the party. The result: monkey bread with the sweet stickiness you love, plus an unexpectedly bright and bold flavor. The touch of tartness is a welcome break from the rich sweetness of most holiday desserts.
How to Make Slow Cooker Cranberry Orange Monkey Bread:
To create this dish, I used the Crock-Pot® 3.5-Quart Casserole Crock Slow Cooker. I love using this slow cooker for desserts. It’s great for things like cobblers, bread pudding, and brownies, too. Who knew you could use a slow cooker for so many tasty treats?
This monkey bread recipe comes together in much the same way as the traditional kind you make in an oven.
Shake quartered dinner rolls in a delicious combination of sugar and freshly zested orange, and then place the rolls in your slow cooker that contains a brown sugar sauce made with butter, orange zest, and dried cranberries.
Set the slow cooker to high, and your monkey bread recipe will be ready in 2-2.5 hours.
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It’s truly that simple. One of the big pluses of using a Crock-Pot Slow Cooker for a dessert such as this monkey bread recipe is that it saves valuable oven space. While the monkey bread is cooking, you can bake a couple other desserts.
You can serve this monkey bread from the slow cooker, however, I like to flip the whole thing onto a serving tray. For me, seeing all that caramelized goodness from the bottom of the pan is one of the best parts of a monkey bread recipe.
Complete the presentation with a drizzle of orange glaze, orange slices, and fresh cranberries, and it’s ready to enjoy!
Slow Cooker Cranberry Orange Monkey Bread Recipe:
Doesn’t that look divine? There’s something about monkey bread, no matter what the flavor combination, that will always be a winner in my book.
Slow Cooker Cranberry Monkey Bread
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 orange zested and juiced
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 24 frozen dinner rolls thawed and quartered
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- Orange slices and fresh cranberries to garnish
Glaze:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the brown sugar, orange juice, and kosher salt. When the mixture begins to boil, remove it from the heat. Pour 1/3 of the sauce into a Crock-Pot® Slow Cooker 3.5 qt Casserole Crock. Reserve the remaining sauce.
- In a small bowl, combine the sugar and zest from one orange. Stir to combine. Spoon the sugar and orange zest mixture into a large plastic bag; then add the quartered biscuits. Shake to fully coat all of the biscuit pieces.
- Add the sugared biscuit quarters to the slow cooker; then sprinkle them with dried cranberries. Finish by pouring the remaining brown sugar sauce over the top of the biscuits. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high heat for 2-2.5 hours or until the bread is cooked through.
- To serve, remove the lid from the slow cooker. Place a large serving dish upside down on top of the slow cooker casserole crock. Invert the slow cooker holding the casserole crock in place. The monkey bread should easily fall out onto the dish.
- In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and enough orange juice to create a glaze. Drizzle this glaze on top of the monkey bread. Add orange slices and fresh cranberries to garnish. Serve immediately.
This was such a unique and flavorful recipe! Yum!
Can you use fresh cranberries?
I was looking for a few new recipes to add to my Christmas brunch this year and this looks absolutely DELICIOUS!!! Would it be possible to make this in an oval crockpot? Would cooking time need to be adjusted? Thanks so much for your recipe.
Would you suggest altering the recipe or cook times if I were to use a bigger crockpot?
Yes – you would definitely need to adjust cooking time.
xo Michael
Ok…dumb question…are Craisins the same thing as dried cranberries?
Yep! They are. Not dumb at all. 🙂
xo Michael
I made this Thanksgiving morning, but used orange cinnamon rolls in place of the biscuits. I also used less sugar. They were a huge hit – thanks for the recipe 😀
Wow! This sounds delicious and a perfect use for the casserole crock pot I purchased earlier this year. Another winner Michael — thanks!
You’re welcome! Enjoy it!
xo Michael
This will be perfect for using the other half of cranberries and orange left after making my grandma’s cranberry jello.