Monkey Bread - A Christmas Morning Tradition

So, I've had several requests for my monkey bread recipe after posting about it on Facebook this weekend. I make it a couple of different ways so I'll try to post each of the recipes here. Enjoy!

Basic (easy) biscuit recipe:

Yield: One large bundt/tube pan of ooey gooey goodness Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cans Pillsbury Grands! Homestyle buttermilk biscuits
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F/175°C. Lightly grease 12-cup fluted tube pan (or bundt pan) with shortening or cooking spray.
2. In large plastic food bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon.
3. Separate dough into 16 biscuits (there are 8 per can); cut each into quarters.
4. Shake in bag to coat dough pieces. Arrange in the pan evenly.
5. In small bowl, mix brown sugar and butter; pour over biscuit pieces.
6. Back 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in the center. Immediately turn pan upside down onto serving plate to allow caramel to seep through.
7. Pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

[caption id="attachment_592" align="aligncenter" width="960" caption="Basic Biscuit Monkey Bread Recipe"][/caption]

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Basic dinner roll recipe

This version uses dinner roll dough rather than the Pillsbury Grands! biscuits. The biscuits do tend to make the mixture a bit "lighter" and "fluffier" but the taste tends to be a bit more salty and more like biscuits. I prefer the flavor of the dinner roll dough to the biscuit dough, personally. Yield: One large bundt/tube pan of ooey gooey goodness Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 12 dinner rolls (I use the frozen dinner rolls if I'm not up to making them from scratch)
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, melted

Directions: The night before:

1. Cut dough into small, ping-pong ball size pieces.
2. In large plastic food bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon.
3. Shake in bag to coat dough pieces. Arrange in the pan evenly.
4. Place uncovered on counter over night to allow dough to rise.

The next morning:

1. Heat oven to 350°F/175°C. Lightly grease 12-cup fluted tube pan (or bundt pan) with shortening or cooking spray.
2. In small bowl, mix brown sugar and butter; pour over biscuit pieces.
3. Back 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in the center. Immediately turn pan upside down onto serving plate to allow caramel to seep through.
4. Pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

Just as with the first recipe, some people like to add nuts and/or raisins to their monkey bread. If you would like to do so, sprinkle 1/2 cup of chopped nuts and/or 1/2 cup raisins (or other dried fruit such as Craisins, dried cherries, chopped dried apricots, etc.) throughout the dough pieces as you put them into the pan, layered.

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Variation 1

Some people like to add nuts and/or raisins to their monkey bread. If you would like to do so, sprinkle 1/2 cup of chopped nuts and/or 1/2 cup raisins (or other dried fruit such as Craisins, dried cherries, chopped dried apricots, etc.) throughout the dough pieces as you put them into the pan, layered.

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Variation 2

I love to add fresh granny smith apples to my monkey bread. It really gives the flavor a kick and at least gives some semblance of healthy food. LOL. To do this, I take 3 medium to large granny smith apples and core and peel them. Then I take one of the apples and cut it in half. With one half, I make thin slices (I use my mandolin slicer) so that the hole from the core is in the center (so they look like large Os). I layer the bottom of the pan with these thin apple slices before I put the dough into the pan. (This makes the bread look really nice when you flip the pan over onto the serving plate and have the caramelized apples all on top.) The other two and a half apples get chopped and all but 1/2 cup get sprinkled throughout the dough as it is layered in the pan. The last 1/2 cup gets mixed in with the melted butter/brown sugar mixture - only this mixture actually gets cooked over a low setting for about 5 minutes to let the flavor of the apple infuse the mix.

Originally posted at Falling Into My Own Sarchasm and cross-posted here.