Monkey Bread Minis

Can you believe that I had never had monkey bread? Never even heard of it until a few weeks ago. Now it seems I am being stalked by recipe after recipe for this delicious breakfast fare. After giving this recipe a try, I've realized that I have been missing out.

I can't believe how crazy delicious this stuff is. It's all carby and caramely. Just this shy of addictive. Thankfully I have 5 other people to share the 12 mini bites of heaven with. I hate to think what would have happened if they were held over at tennis lesson or got a flat tire. I could have eaten them all!

This recipe came from a recipe book that was included in a swag bag from Box Top University. I love that just by making this a couple of times a month I can contribute a few extra box tops to my kids school:

You only need 5 ingredients to get started on your journey to monkey bread heaven:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cans (7.05 oz each) Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits

Grease or spray 12 regular-size muffin cups. Mix butter and brown sugar; spoon 1 Tbsp of mixture into each muffin cup.

Separate dough into 20 biscuits. Cut each biscuit into 6 pieces.

Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in 1-gallon bag. Shake pieces in the bag to coat with cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Place 10 pieces in each muffin cup and bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool 1 minute, then turn upside down. Serve Warm.

FYI: I used Grand's as it was the type of biscuit I had on hand. They were a bit to big. I had dough left over even after a little smooshing to get more to fit into each muffin cup. And when they came out of the oven, I had to do a bit more smooshing to get them sopping up all that delicious caramel.  I am a big fan of use what you have, but if you are buying ingredients for this recipe stick with the small biscuits. I bet they will work out a lot better with no waste.

Caramel-Nut Breakfast Biscuits

 Miss Maddy and I made these scrumptious Caramel-Nut Breakfast Biscuits from Pillsbury's e-newsletter last week. They were super fast and easy to prepare...in fact Miss Maddy did all of the work with just instruction on my part.




INGREDIENTS:

1 teaspoon butter or margarine, softened
6 Tablespoons butterscotch or caramel topping
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
6 Tablespoons chopped walnuts {I used pecans}
1 can of Biscuits {I used Grand's}
1 teaspoon sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 350°F. Generously butter bottom and sides of 2 (6-oz) custard cups {I used a 9x13} with softened butter. In small bowl, stir together topping and cinnamon. Divide between custard cups. Sprinkle with walnuts. Place frozen biscuit in each cup. Sprinkle each biscuit with 1/2 teaspoon sugar.
Bake 23 to 27 minutes or until golden brown and biscuits are no longer doughy. Immediately run sharp knife around edge of cup; turn each upside down onto serving plate. Slowly lift custard cup from biscuit, releasing biscuit onto plate. Spread any topping remaining in cup over biscuit. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

I have to say: I am so thankful for Hubby. He does all the dishes for us so that I can spend this extra time with my kids teaching them to cook and a love for cooking. On this particular night he did the dishes for this recipe plus 3 more. I also made Chili and skillet cornbread with Avery and coconut bread with Ethan. Without Hubby doing on our clean up crew...I am not sure that I would have the will, energy or time to play in the kitchen with my kids.


Who does your dishes?

Chocolate Gravy {Great for Valentine's Breakfast}

Want to make a special treat for your family? Give this chocolate gravy a try! My family was so aghast that my kids had never had any...but there are a lot regular type recipes that I don't know since I learned to cook from watching the food network. I got this recipe from my Aunt Nita. I asked her to tell me how to make it...but she couldn't. She said I'll make it and you take notes. I tried to talk her out of it since she was over to visit with Grandma and Mother but thank goodness she convinced me that it was no trouble. It's so delicious...and can make biscuits and gravy super duper special.

You will need cocoa powder, salt, sugar, flour and milk.

In a bowl measure out 6 heaping spoons of flour.

Add 12 spoonfuls of sugar and a small dash of salt.

Sprinkle your mixture with half a spoonful of cocoa.

Stir to combine really well. 

You are looking for this color...when you think you have it add another tiny dash of cocoa.

Put 3 cups of milk in a pan on medium heat. When it gets about luke warm add cocoa mixture and stir continuously until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon completely. It should look like very light melted chocolate. Makes enough gravy for about 12 biscuits.

Pour over biscuits and top with a bit of butter and serve with sausage or bacon.

My uncles all add a ton of butter to each biscuit...I added a dot and it tasted really really good. Nita said that she made this for her kids every weekend when they were little.

Sounds like a good plan to me!

What's your favorite food memory?

I Might Love Biscuits more than Chocolate

I'm not good with bread though...I have been known to burn:

Toast

Biscuits

Rolls

Pizza 

To be blunt I never have been able to make anything resembling bread go into my oven and come out edible. 

 

It's always burned...either completely unrecognizable or the bottom is rock hard brown/black. 

 

In fact if you were in my house at dinner time -- I might knock you down in my haste to get back to the bread that I forgot about in the oven.

 

So imagine my surprise when this combination of cheese, sausage and bread came out of MY OVEN incredibly yummy.

 

Side note:  This recipe sadly only makes 6 scrumptious biscuits...granted my kids were at their grandparents - so Hubby and I were able to split them. 

 

Biscuit Sausage Cheese Balls
Katie Barreira
Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine 2010

Ingredients:

1/2 pound spicy Italian sausage
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream - tad bit more for basting.
1 ounce American or sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large skillet , crumble sausage and cook, stirring often, over medium-high heat until browned., about 5 mintues. Drain and let cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in heavy cream and sausage into dry ingredients. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, press into a disk and cut into 6 even triangles.



Cut cheese into 6 cubes and place 1 in the center of each triangle; roll into a ball. Place the dough balls on a baking sheet, brush with some more cream and bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

I discovered this recipe about 7 years ago when I was looking to add more nutritional value to the lunches I served the children in my childcare. They loved these biscuits. There was never any left overs when I put these on the table and the same holds true when I serve them to my family. Right now Sweet potatoes are a real bargain at $ .69 a pound in our local supermarkets. You only need one for this recipe. The orange sweet potatoes give a soft texture and a beautiful golden color to these fluffy biscuits. It's also a very good use of leftover sweet potatoes from Easter dinner!

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading

2 tablespoons light-brown sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

6 1/2 tablespoons chilled butter

3/4 cup chilled Sweet Potato Puree

1/3 cup buttermilk

Step 1) In a large bowl, whisk together 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.

Step 2) With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in 6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-size lumps of butter remaining.

Step 3) In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup chilled Sweet Potato Purée and 1/3 cup buttermilk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not over mix).

Step 4) Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour.) Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness.

Step 5) With a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).
Step 6) Preheat oven to 425 degrees, with rack on lower shelf.

Step 7) Butter an 8-inch cake pan. (I always cut a circle of parchment paper and put it in the bottom of my cake pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan (to help them stay upright). The closer they are together the taller your biscuits will be! Brush with 1/2 tablespoon melted butter.

Step 8) Bake until golden, rotating once, 20 to 24 minutes. Serve warm.

(This recipe was torn out of Martha Stewart "food" magazine several years ago.)

Blessings,