Tasty Tuesdays: Pioneer Woman's Monkey Bread

As you may have read last week, we had a full house this weekend.  Two of my brothers-in-law and their wives and my roommate from college and her hubby came down to Beaufort to celebrate the Fourth of July.  From the moment the first group hit the ground in Beaufort we were going, going, going. 

With so much to see and do, I tried to have a menu planned for the weekend that would provide us with tasty meals that are easy to make.  I wanted dishes that could come together quickly so that we didn't have to center our plans around me having to get back to the kitchen.  Mostly though, I wanted dishes that would fill our house with scents that reminded our guests of home - cinnamon and sugar, baking pie crust, warm blueberries.  I wanted them to wake up each morning excited to see what that day's breakfast would bring them.

My favorite dish from the weekend was a recipe for Monkey Bread from The Pioneer Woman's website.  This could not have been easier to make, and let me tell you if there was ever a dish that deserved a scratch and sniff feature on your computer, this is that dish! 

You start the bread by quartering three rolls of Pillsbury biscuits.  The quarters are then dusted lightly in a cinnamon sugar mixture and added in layers to a bundt pan.  I did three even layers, and it was the perfect amount since they will rise in the oven.  These three steps could certainly be done in advance and left in the fridge overnight if you are really in a hurry to say get to a tailgate or morning brunch.  The final step before baking requires the preparation of an easy caramel sauce made by melting butter and brown sugar together until they form a nice syrup.  Pour this delish sauce directly over the layers of cinnamon sugar biscuit quarters and bake for 40 minutes. 

The only caution I will give you is that once your guests taste this amazing creation, you will likely be hosting them much more often. 

Pastor Ryan’s Monkey BreadPrep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 40 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Servings: 8

Ingredients

3 cans Buttermilk Biscuits (the Non-flaky Ones)

1 cup Sugar

2 teaspoons (to 3 Teaspoons) Cinnamon

2 sticks Butter

½ cups Brown Sugar

Preparation Instructions Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Open up all three cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters.

Next, combine the white sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon. (3 teaspoons of cinnamon gives it a fairly strong cinnamon flavor. If you’re not so hot on cinnamon, cut it back to 2 teaspoons.) Dump these into a 1 gallon zip bag and shake to mix evenly.

Drop all of the biscuit quarters into the cinnamon-sugar mix. Once all the biscuit quarters are in the bag seal it and give it a vigorous shake. This will get all those pieces unstuck from one another and nicely coated with cinnamon-sugar. Spread these nuggets out evenly in the bundt pan.

At this point, you’re going to want to melt the two sticks of butter together with ½ cup of brown sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. This can be light or dark brown sugar. Cook butter/sugar mixture, stirring for a few minutes until the two become one. Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, you can pour it over the biscuits.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is a deep dark brown on top. When its finished cooking, remove it from the oven. If you have the willpower, allow it to cook for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto a plate.