Monday, May 3, 2010

Easy Breezy Monkey Bread

I'm still a newbie when it comes to the kitchen, so I love a good tasty and easy recipe. Monkey bread totally fits the bill. Chunks of biscuits doused in butter+cinnamon+sugar that you can peel off with your hands? Sign me up. The recipe I used is from Pioneer Woman (or rather her friend Pastor Ryan), and I haven't changed much.

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Take three cans of pillsbury buttermilk biscuits and cut the biscuits in quarters. Pastor Ryan does it with a knife, but the fastest way is to do it with scissors. Let's all take a moment to thank my 6th grade home-economics teacher for that bit of genius.

3. Take a gallon-sized ziplock bag, and fill it with 1 cup of sugar + 3 tsps of cinnamon. Zip it up, and shake it up to mix it well.
4. Then take all those bisquit quarters and put them in the bag. Zip up and give it a "vigorous shake." Pastor Ryan says not to worry about the pieces sticking together since the sugar mixture will break 'em up. Well, ladies and gentlemen, Pastor Ryan lied! I forgive him, though, because he's kind of adorable. I had a really hard time getting the pieces to separate (probably because I took a whole handful at a time and accidentally squeezed them together), so my tip is to make sure you plop the biscuit pieces in the plastic bag one by one. Then zip it up and do the vigorous shaking.
5. Now put all the gloriously covered pieces in a bundt pan, like so:

6. In a medium saucepan, melt 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 2 sticks of butter in over medium heat until it's all one color.
7. Pour it evenly over the biscuits in the bundt pan. It looks like it's too much, but it all settles down eventually.
8. Pop it in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown. Ymmm.

9. Wait 15-30 minutes, then flip it over on a plate. It's gonna smell incredible, and you're gonna want to pick off and devour a few pieces. I sure did.

I know. I did a terrible job of flipping - when I flipped it over and the bread wasn't coming out, I thwopped the whole thing too hard, and it dropped out too fast for me catch the flying parts.

Okay, there were no flying parts. But the bundt shape did break - I tried to put it back together as best I could. Moral (for me, anyway!) is to exercise more care and patience.

The good news is that it still tasted pretty good! Look at the gooeyness! Best enjoyed while still super hot.

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