Julie's Monkey Bread

Hi friends. I know you've been chomping at the bit, wondering what that second item was that I made for lab meeting this week! Ha, just kidding. :) From the title of this post you can tell that I made Monkey Bread!!! That is meant to be said in a very fast, excited manner...Monkey Bread!! This item is always a hit, believe me. I've made it several times before, but I actually have never used the recipe I'll share in this post, which is from my good friend from college, Julie. It's one of her signature dishes! In the past, I've used Cooking Light's Monkey Bread recipe. A month or two ago I had some friends over for board games, and Julie brought her famous monkey bread. I asked her for the recipe afterward, and now, here I am sharing it with you! At some point in the future I'll have to make the Cooking Light version again so that I can blog about that one too. The last time I made it was before the Barbershop blog was in existence!

Here is Julie's simple and delicious recipe. :)

-3 cans buttermilk rolls/biscuits

-1/2 cup sugar

-2 Tbsp. cinnamon

-1 stick butter (I used margarine)

-2 tsp. vanilla

-3/4 cup sugar

Cut the biscuits into quarters.

Place the biscuit quarters, 1/2 cup sugar, and cinnamon into a large ziploc bag and shake to coat.

Mmmm, love this close up of the biscuits, coated with delicious cinnamon and sugar.....

When coated, put into a greased bundt pan (the greased part is very important!).

Bring the stick of butter to a simmer on the stove, then add the vanilla. Slowly mix in the 3/4 cup of sugar until the mixture is smooth. Pour over the biscuits in the bundt pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and then flip onto a plate or platter. ENJOY!!!

Now, I have to admit that I was unable to fully remove the monkey bread from the bundt pan and invert it onto a plate. Sad... I greased the pan very well, but that wasn't enough! No matter how hard I tried, the entire thing wouldn't come out. I may have waited too long to try to invert it (I'm not sure how long I waited, but it was longer than the 10 minutes that the recipe instructs). So anyway, I don't have a pretty picture of the monkey bread to show you. Sorry! All I have is a couple views from above the bundt pan, as you can see above here and at the very top of the post. However, the image below is one that I stole from online. I can assure you that had mine been inverted, it would have looked like this one... ;-) I highly recommend making monkey bread the next time you're having people over for brunch or are heading over to a friend's place for any occasion really. It's a hit with adults and kids alike, I promise! There's something fun (and obviously super yummy!) about eating cinnamon-sugary balls of dough without any utensils. It's quite enjoyable! :)

A Few Recent Recipes (before the blog came into existence :))

I thought I'd share some recent recipes that I've made...but, sadly, I don't have pictures of these since these were BB (Before Blogging)! Nonetheless, here you go... :)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

My friend Elizabeth and I had a baking day this past fall, and this was one of the recipes we made. Neither of us could get enough of them!!!! Yummmm. They're actually not incredibly pumpkin-y tasting (good news for those of you who aren't big pumpkin fans). But, they are SO moist and delicious still....and incredibly easy to make too! Here's the recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

Warm Gingerbread with Lemon Glaze

I made this as a Thanksgiving dessert this year as an alternative to the traditional turkey day pie desserts. It is a recipe from my "Best of Cooking Light" cookbook. Along with the cake, I made homemade whipped cream. Serve a slice of this cake warm with a dollop of the whipped cream. It's a nice, classic dessert for the winter time, I think. P.S. The picture here is not of the cake I made...but it looked similar! :)

Here's the recipe: Warm Gingerbread with Lemon Glaze

Monkey Bread

This is AMAZINGly good!!! I've made it a couple times when it has been my turn to bring in breakfast for our lab meetings at work on Friday mornings. It's gone in no time at all! All of my coworkers love it. It's also a Cooking Light recipe, so you don't have to feel too guilty about eating it... ;-)

This is the easy, quick recipe: Monkey Bread

And here's a picture (again, not mine though!).