Pre-portioned Monkey Bread
One of the summer camps I went to as a kid had different clubs you could join, and ~naturally~ I found myself drawn towards the cooking club. We baked fun treats and recorded the recipes down in our little booklets.
The only recipe I remember making is monkey bread because of the funky name. I hadn't eaten it since then, but something about sweet gooey soft cinnamon-y bread was really calling to me, and my roommate was heading out to a party, so I figured this was the perfect time to bake up a batch so I could eat one and he could take the rest away from me, haha. I'm pretty sure we made it from scratch back then in summer camp, but I went lazy mode this time by using the pre-made biscuit dough you can find in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.
Ingredients
- 1 can of biscuits (~16oz)
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 c light brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 c powered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp milk
Methodology
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. This is going to coat all the ballssss.
Cower in fear as you do the exploding thing with the can of biscuits to open it up, then regroup and recover and start cutting the biscuits into 6 pieces--cut in half, and then cut each half into thirds.
Form the cut biscuit pieces into balls.
Melt the butter and set up something that resembles a breading station.
Dip the balls into the butter...
...then roll and coat with the sugar-cinnamon mix...
...and repeat that with all the balls. Place them into a greased muffin tin, with four balls in each cavity.
Bake for 15 minute, and allow to cool.
To create the glaze, mix the milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Drizzle it over the cool(er) monkey bread.
Results
Sticky, warm, and sweet. As delightful as the version that's usually made in a bundt pan, but portioned into muffin-size cups to make sure you're not going overboard on the sweets.
If you make them, I recommend heating slightly before serving because the temp absolutely makes a different and softens everything again.