Monkey Bread

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees, People say we like to monkey around...

Every Christmas morning, my family makes monkey bread. It’s such a decadent (read: mucho calories!) treat that once a year is enough. This year we mixed things up by going up to my grandmother’s in North Georgia. We usually spend Thanksgiving there, but hadn’t spent a Christmas there in thirty-some years.   

It was cold and wonderful, and somehow in all the festivities, we failed to make monkey bread Christmas morning!

Since I’m the biggest fan of monkey bread, the biscuits were sent back with me. I woke up today to a windy 20 degree morning, and knew before I got out of bed that it was a monkey bread morning.

Since it’s just me, I cut the recipe down to one can of biscuits. It’s okay to eat one can in a day right?!

Monkey Bread

1 can jumbo, buttermilk biscuits (I’ve also made my own biscuit dough and used it in before to excellent results)

½ cup white sugar

2 tsp cinnamon (I like a lot of cinnamon)

6 Tablespoons of butter or margarine

¼ cup brown sugar

1.      Open up the biscuits and revel in that “POP!”
2.      Cut each biscuit into quarters.
3.      Mix the white sugar and cinnamon in a bag or jar.
4.      Add the biscuit quarters to the sugar mixture and shake, shake, shake your biscuits!
5.      Once the biscuits are covered, take out and put them in a loaf pan, ramekin, or small Bundt pan. I used one mini loaf pan and two ramekins. Tetris skills come in handy here. 
6.      In a pan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the brown sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the mixture becomes one, mostly uniform, golden color.
7.      Pour the butter mixture over the biscuits.
8.      Put in a 340 degree oven for 30-40 minutes. I used my toaster oven and it took about 50 minutes. To check, stick a toothpick in the middle and check for doughiness.
9.      Allow to cool slightly. Run a knife around the sides and dump out on a plate, giving it some love taps if necessary.
10.    Use fingers to pull off crunchy tops and flakey middles. Dip finger in the gooey butter mix on the bottom and lick off.