A couple of weeks ago Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod made these muffins for her hubby and if you remember this post you're not surprised I had to give these a try. These were (are!) sooooo good. Yes, they use *gasp* refrigerated dough but you know what? I'm totally okay with that. (sorry Maria :))
I've eaten and made monkey bread many times and used various recipes but this is my new favorite! It probably has something to do with the fact that each muffins is covered in a generous amount of yummy caramel. :) I also like the individual servings, mini monkey bread!
Here's Maria's recipe . I made my muffins a little different and have noted it in (red).
4 cans of refrigerated biscuits, I used Pillsbury (I only used 1 ten count can. You could certainly use homemade biscuit dough or whatever brand/type you want.)
Cinnamon (be generous, cinnamon is your friend)
Sugar (I have a cinnamon sugar shaker so I used it)
1 stick of butter (I used salted)
1 cup of brown sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. (Be sure to spray the top of the muffin pan as the caramel mixture bubbles up and over.)
2. Cut the biscuits in half and roll the dough into little balls. (I cut mine into quarters and didn't roll them)
3. Combine the cinnamon and sugar. I use extra cinnamon:) Roll the balls in the mixture. (I tossed the dough into a bowl and generously sprinkled cinnamon sugar over it. Toss well to make certain the dough is adequately covered with the cinnamon sugar.)
4. Place four balls in one muffin cup. Fill the pan. (In all but three of the muffins before placing the dough I added some chopped pecans and then filled the cup with four pieces of dough.)
5. Melt the butter and brown sugar in a small pot on the stove. Stir until melted and bubbly. (You could use a different "caramel" recipe, store bought, or melt down those caramel candies (sorry, Julia) but I suggest just using this one; works fine, taste good!)
6. Pour the gooey sauce over the muffins. (I made the whole caramel recipe yet only made 10 muffins so, I saved a little bit for another use. I also topped the dough that had pecans on the bottom with more pecans. Besides the pecans you could add in chocolate chips or in my case cinnamon ones. )
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes. (I checked mine at 10 but they weren't done. Though I did notice that some of the caramel mixture was precariously close to bubbling over the pan's edge and onto my oven floor so I hurriedly put the muffin pan onto a cookie sheet and baked for about 5 more minutes.)
8. Cool for a minute in pan. Remove muffins from pan and enjoy. (With my one can of biscuits I made 10 muffins which was perfect for my family of five but you could certainly use a smaller can of biscuits or as many cans as you'd like. Just adjust the recipe accordingly. This recipe is very forgiving!)
**If you don't want to make muffins, you can do a big monkey bread loaf in a bundt pan. Just layer the balls and pour the gooey sauce over them. It will take longer to bake, 35-40 minutes.**
Joe thinks everything is better with vanilla ice cream so he added some to his muffin. Speaking of ice cream..... I've got a mega ice cream post I'm working on. Stay tuned! :)
Awhile back I made Maria's cinnamon syrup but unfortunately I didn't get any photos. I kept thinking I'd make another batch and take some pics but it hasn't happened. I made the syrup for the kids to top their school morning Eggo waffles. It was a hit and a nice change from their Hungry Jack syrup. The recipe doesn't say but it will keep in the fridge for about a week.
