#6: Monkey Bread

I have been dying to try this recipe. No joke. Ever since Jon and Kate Plus 8 (pre-Ed Hardy, hair extension wearing, Dancing with the Stars days) aired their Christmas episode, in which Kate produces for the camera a lavish breakfast pastry, so chock full of nuts, sugar, and butter it was dripping down the sides of the plate, I knew I HAD to make this. Low and behold, who should produce a recipe for this concoction but Stephen's friend from school, the woman who inspired me to take on my 365 days, 100 recipes challenge. Using her recipe, I created this Saturday morning for my family's breakfast. The results were good, although I think Kate said it best when she described her monkey bread as being "soooo good... but so very bad."

Monkey bread (taken directly from http://projectbakeblog.blogspot.com/... Breanna, you'll get some sort of loyalties for this, I promise. I owe you.)

Ingredients:

 

36 oz (2 packages) refrigerated biscuit dough

1 cup sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

 

Directions:

 

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9 or 10 inch Bundt pan. 

      - My mother doesn't own a Bundt pan (there's ANOTHER birthday idea, folks. I am going to be SO easy to shop for this year. Electric stand alone mixer, bundt pan... and a karaoke machine), so I opted to use a well greased angel food cake mold. 

2. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a big ziploc.  Separate the biscuits and cut them into fourths. Put 6-8 pieces into the bag of cinnamon sugar, and toss around until covered.  

     - This was my FAVORITE step. I took Breanna's suggestion of using a pizza cutter to easily separate the biscuits into fourths, and it worked beautifully. Plus, there was something strangely therapeutic about throwing those pieces around in the Ziploc... especially when I started pounding the bag against the kitchen counter.

 

3. Place the pieces into the pan. Do this with all the pieces until the pan is about 3/4 full.

     - This is the step where you can add in nuts or raisins between the layers. My brother doesn't like either in his pastry, so I left them out. 

4. In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the brown sugar and boil for about one minute, and then pour it over the biscuits.  

     - PS, boiling sugar is dangerous. I burnt the crud out of my tongue TRYING this mixture. You learn something new every day.

 

5. Bake for 35 minutes, let the bread cool for 10 minutes, and then turn it out onto a plate.

     - I had to keep it in for 40 minutes. Again, my parents' oven is HORRIBLE.

 

Such a delicious morning treat. I didn't realize how HUGE the portion was on this though... definitely way too much for a family of four. Here are some pictures of my finished product:

My apologies for how I look. I had just gotten back from the gym, burning off enough calories to be able to TRY my monkey bread. PLUS, my mother insisted I pose with the finished product like I used to in front of our house for every first day of school.