Fluffy, soft, and sweet pillows of sugary, buttery biscuit dough are stuffed with juicy cherries and topped with chocolate chips. These individual cherry monkey bread muffins are the perfect dessert or brunch recipe.
If you love the combination of sweet cherries and chocolate, you'll love the flavor of these monkey bread muffins. They are easy to make for kids and adults alike. I prefer to use a jumbo muffin tin for the fluffiest muffins around!
Ingredients
Jumbo Southern Style Biscuits make are the base dough for these muffin tin monkey bread treats. I bought mine from Aldi because they were the cheapest. You get 8 biscuits per tube which comfortably makes 5 muffins.
Cherry Pie Filling is what I used for this recipe. I used Mother's Maid brand which I bought at Dollar Tree. I find this brand is better than the Aldi canned cherries brand. You will only use roughly half the can for this recipe so consider saving it for later or doubling the batch of muffins.
Unsalted Butter is used to butter the biscuits for a golden-brown appeal and buttery flavor. This also helps the granulated sugar stick.
Granulated Sugar sweetens the muffins, and is sprinkled on after you prepare the stuffed pieces.
Milk chocolate chips were used to bring the perfect flavor pairing with the cherries.
Making Chocolate Cherry Monkey Bread Muffins
Preheat your oven to 350F. You will also want to ensure the oven baking rack is positioned in the center.
Spray a 6-count jumbo muffin tin with nonstick baking spray.
Open the biscuits (this always gives me anxiety-haha) and separate them into 8 biscuits. Using a rolling pin flatten one biscuit and then cut it into 4 quarters.
Using a teaspoon, remove one cherry and place it in the center of the quarter. Carefully fold the edges and place the piece into the greased muffin tin. You will need 5-6 pieces per tin. It is okay if some cherry sauce spills out!
Using a pastry brush, brush the little pieces of cherry stuffed dough with butter, and then sprinkle them with sugar.
Add about a tablespoon of chocolate chips to each muffin.
Bake for 20-23 minutes or until muffins are golden brown, fluffy, and crusty feeling to the touch.
Allow your muffins to cool for at least 5 minutes before carefully running a plastic knife around the edges of the inside of the muffin.
Remove the monkey bread muffins and enjoy!
Recipes Swaps
With every good recipes, there are some swaps that can be made.
Biscuit variety can vary but I would advise against using any flavored biscuits like honey or cornbread types.
You could also use a crescent dough sheet. It would be a bit of a learning curve to cut the dough into the right shaped pieces but it could be done.
You can use any fruit filling you prefer but do not use more than a teaspoon per piece.
For the chocolate you could add a melted swizzle to the tops of the muffin instead of using whole chocolate chips.
Freshness
These muffins taste best when eaten the same day. However, if you plan on saving some for later, I suggest freezing them once cooled. I like to store mine vacuum sealed for ultimate freshness. These will last for up to 3 months when frozen properly.
To enjoy, allow the muffin to thaw in the refrigerator. Once thawed, heat it for 3-5 minutes at 300F in an air fryer or 5 minutes in a preheated oven. Enjoy!
More Tasty Muffin Tin Desserts to Try Today!
Recipe
Chocolate Cherry Monkey Bread Muffins
Equipment
- oven adjusted to the center rack position
- 6 count jumbo muffin tin
- cutting board & knife
- can opener
- teaspoon
Ingredients
- ½ cup cherry pie filling
- 16 ounces Jumbo Buttermilk Biscuits *I used Aldi brand
- 1½ tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F. You will also want to ensure the oven baking rack is positioned in the center.
- Spray a 6-count jumbo muffin tin with nonstick baking spray.
- Open the biscuits and separate them into 8 biscuits. Using a rolling pin flatten one biscuit and then cut it into 4 quarters.
- Using a teaspoon, remove one cherry and place it in the center of the dough quarter. Carefully fold the edges and place the cherry-stuffed dough piece into the greased muffin tin. You will need 5-6 pieces per tin. It is okay if some cherry sauce spills out!
- Using a pastry brush, brush the little pieces of cherry stuffed dough with butter, and then sprinkle them with sugar.
- Add about a tablespoon of chocolate chips to each muffin.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes or until muffins are golden brown, fluffy, and crusty feeling to the touch.
- Enjoy warm!
Kushigalu says
Love the combination of ingredients in this muffin recipe. Thanks for sharing
Sandra says
These look delicious! Love how the chocolate chips melt into the cherries on the side of the muffin!!
Traci says
Ahhh I love how these will are able to be fully cooked since they're not all clumped together like a traditional recipe. Brilliant! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Stephanie says
I think this would be such a fun Valentine's Day dessert to share with my kids! They could eat cherry pie filling straight out of the can. They'll love this.
cyndy says
Chocolate and cherries are my all-time favorite flavor combination. This is such a clever way to make muffins. Next time I will make double!