Pastor Ryan's Monkey Bread

I can't say enough good things about this "cake" from Pioneer Woman. I brought Monkey Muffins, also from Pioneer Woman, to my family for Christmas Day Brunch and they were a HUGE hit, even with the traditionally "non-carb" folks. Both of these recipes are fantastic, but I normally make Pastor Ryan's Monkey Bread now.



3 cans buttermilk biscuits (the non flaky-ones) – I use the generic Safeway brand with the butter flakes in them and they work great
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons (to 3 teaspoons) cinnamon (I use 2 and it’s perfect for me)
2 sticks butter
½ cup brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (Even though the butter will coat the Bundt pan I still spray it with cooking spray to start.)

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 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. (I take what’s left of the cinnamon sugar and dump it over the biscuit pieces after they have been coated.)

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. (I just put two sticks of butter in the pan and dump the brown sugar over it; once it starts to melt I stir it.)

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 cool for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto a plate.

Streusel Coffee Cake

I found this recipe over at Real Mom Kitchen, and I made it with Country Crock margarine from the tub, that was what we had at the time, and it tasted funny to my roommate, her boyfriend and me. It probably didn’t help that I ran out of regular Bisquick and had to use the reduced fat stuff for the streusel topping, either. Based on that, though, I would highly suggest cubed margarine or butter, and let me know if it’s good after the correct ingredients? Only because…mine was an epic fail!!!




Cinnamon Streusel
1/3 cup original Bisquick mix
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons firm butter or margarine

Coffee Cake
2 cups original Bisquick mix
2/3 cup milk or water (I used milk)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg

Heat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Grease nine-inch round pan. In small bowl, stir streusel ingredients until crumbly, set aside.

In medium bowl, mix coffee cake ingredients until well blended. Spread in pan. Sprinkle with streusel.

Bake eighteen to twenty-two minutes or until golden brown.

Cinnamon Rolls

When I found the recipe for Molly's Rolls on Real Mom Kitchen, Laura mentioned in her post that she thought this dough would be great for cinnamon rolls, so I split the dough in half, using half for the rolls and half to make cinnamon rolls. I used the filling and the glaze recipe from the Overnight Cinnamon Rolls via Our Best Bites recipe that I had tried last year and had success with.



Cinnamon Roll Filling
1/2 cup (1 stick) real butter at room temperature, divided
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Take 2 tablespoons of the stick of butter, reserve. Beat remaining butter, brown sugar and cinnamon together until combines and slightly fluffy, about 1 minute.

Spread filling mixture evenly on the rolled out dough, then roll the dough up like a log, pressing the seem into the log to seal. Using a sharp knife, gently cut the rolls taking care not to squish them in the process.

Place rolls cut side up in a baking dish. Melt reserved 2 tablespoons butter and brush on top of rolls. Bake at the temperature and for the time suggested in the Molly's Rolls recipe.

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons milk or cream (I used milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

When rolls are baking, mix glaze ingredients to combine.

Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, spread glaze over them and serve. (I drizzled mine over them right from the mixing bowl)