More Monkey Bread

I love, love, love monkey bread.  Here are three more ways of making it! I have tried each one of them and devoured the results. Since I got my new oven I haven't made any in the microwave.(method I)


Method II:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cans refrigerated biscuits
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350* F, lightly grease bundt pan with cooking spray.
2. Mix sugar & cinnamon together in bowl or bag.
3. Cut/Tear each biscuit into fourths. Toss/Shake in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Layer in pan.
4. In small bowl combine brown sugar & melted butter; pour over biscuits.
5. Bake 28-32 minutes.  Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn out onto serving plate.

I also drizzled a little sweetened condensed cream over it while it's cooling.

Method III (yeast free - dough from scratch)
*Dough:                                      **Coating                            
2 1/2 cups flour                                1 cup brown sugar                
1 1/2 tsp baking powder                   2 tsp cinnamon                      
1/2 tsp coarse salt                             4-8 T. butter
4 T. melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk

***Glaze
 1 cup powdered sugar
 2 T milk

Preheat 425* F      grease or spray bundt pan
*1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda & salt
  2. In small bowl, whisk milk &  melted butter. Pour over dry ingredients and mix until scraggly.
  3. Knead a few times until smooth.
  4. Press out on floured surface to form 8 x 8 square  Using sharp knife or pizza cutter cut dough into small squares. Roll each square into a ball.

**Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Melt butter in a separate bowl.
- Dip dough in butter, let excess drip off, then dip in brown sugar mix.  Layer in pan, staggering seams.

Bake 20 mins.  Cool 5 minutes then turn out on plate.

*** Whisk powdered sugar & milk until smooth, drizzle over warm bread.

Method IIII (using yeast dough from scratch)
*Dough                                   **Coating                              
2 T softened butter                       1 cup brown sugar                  
2 T melted butter                          2 tsp cinnamon                      
1 cup warm milk                           8 T butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 pkg rapid rise yeast
3 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp salt

***Glaze
  1 cup powder sugar
  2 T milk


*Oven rack med-low position, heat to 20* & turn off.  Using 2 T butter, coat pan & set aside.
1. Mix milk, water, melted butter, sugar and yeast in bowl.  In mixer with dough hook; combine flour & salt on low, slowly add milk mixture. When it comes together increase speed to medium until shiny & smooth.
2. Turn onto lightly floured surface, knead to form smooth ball.  Coat large bowl with cooking spray. Place dough in bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in warm oven for 50-60 minutes until it doubles in size.
**Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in bowl. Place melted butter in second bowl.

Gently remove dough from bowl, pat into rough 8 inch square.  Cut into 64 pieces and roll each into a ball. Dip in butter then cinnamon-sugar mix. Layer in bundt pan staggering seams. Cover with plaster wrap and put in oven 50-70 minutes.

Remove & heat oven to 350* F.  Unwrap pan and bake 30-35 minutes.
Cool 5 minutes before turning out on plate.

*** Whisk powdered sugar and milk until smooth, drizzle over warm bread.

Chicken Croissant Pockets

It's the day of laundry and grocery shopping.  A full day requires a quick, but yummy and filling dinner.  I recently found this recipe via Pinterest and thought, "Ooooh, I want to try this!".  And that I did, with some minor tweaks to suit our tastes.

3 T. softened cream cheese
6 T. cream of mushroom soup
1 T. butter, melted
2 C. chopped, cooked chicken
2 T. milk
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls
1 sm can mixed veggies
3/4 C. seasoned croutons, crushed.

* I used the breast meat from a small rotisserie chicken (bagged and stored the remains for another dish this week).

(c) Keytee 2012

Preheat oven to 350*
1. In medium mixing bowl, combine cream cheese & mushroom soup until well blended.
2. Add in chicken, milk, & pepper.  Set aside.
3. Unroll crescent rolls, separate so you have 4 rectangles, press perforations to seal.
4. Spoon a glob of chicken mixture into center, and top with a spoonful of veggies.
5. Cross two opposite corners and press edges to seal, then bring remaining two corners up and twist once. Make sure all edges are sealed.
6.  Brush top with melted butter and dip in crushed croutons.
7. Place on un-greased baking sheet.
Bake 20-25 minutes, serve warm.

I made 8 of them tonight and there's none left.  My four year old even ate one.

Grandma's Peach Cobbler

3 C. peeled, sliced peaches
1/2 C. sugar
1 T. corn starch
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
-----------------------
1 T oleo (margarine)
-----------------------
1 C. flour
1 T. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
----------------------
1/4 C. corn oil
1/3 C skim milk

(c) SimplyRecipes.com

1.  Mix first 6 ingredients together. Pour into 10x6x1 baking dish
2.  Dot with oleo
3.  Mix in bowl, next 5 ingredients.  Add corn oil & milk, stir until moistened.
4.  Drop by teaspoons on  peach mixture.

Bake @ 400 degrees until lightly browned.   Serve  warm with french vanilla ice cream.

Chicken Pot Pie

I love pot pies. I love to make them and eat them and serve them.


4 T unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1 med. onion (diced)
1/2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt  (may want to omit this if broth is already salty)
pepper to taste
4 C. chicken broth (32oz)
3 C. cut up chicken   (I used 5 chicken breasts, but you can use whatever you have.)
1 small bag frozen mixed veggies
2 cans croissants
1 lg egg yolk
1 tsp water

Preheat oven to 375*
- Melt butter; add onions & cook until tender and onions are clear.
- Add flour, salt & pepper. Stir constantly until pale yellow & thick like oatmeal
- Add broth, continue stirring while bringing it to a boil and thickening. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat.  Stir in chicken & frozen veggies, season again if needed.
- Lay out croissants on top to cover mixture.  (I had 7 left to roll and bake seperately)
- Beat egg yolk & water, brush on croissants.
Bake 25-35 minutes.

Grandma D's Bread Pudding

When I was little I used to spend a lot of time at my grandparents. I was Grandpa's little buddy. We'd make chocolate ice cream with vanilla ice cream and Hershey's syrup.  We'd sit and watch t.v. while cracking walnuts. He'd make me a scrambled egg in a small Pyrex dish and microwave it to cook.  And we'd devour a casserole dish of Grandma's bread pudding.

4-6 slices white bread cut into cubes (texas toast bread is great for this, and I use kitchen scissor to cut it)
2 T. butter/ margarine, melted  (I forget it sometimes, still tastes the same)
1/3 C. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 C.  sweet raisins  ( I really don't measure them out, just dump 2-3 little "snack" boxes in)
3 eggs - beaten
1/3 C. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
dash of salt
2 1/2 C scalded milk

Preheat oven to 350* F.
-Set milk in small sauce pan over lowest heat possible. Scald during next prep.
-Cut bread into cubes and place in casserole dish.
-Drizzle with butter.
-Sprinkle with brown sugar & cinnamon.
-Add raisins
-Mix in eggs, sugar, vanilla, & salt
-Alternate adding a little scalded milk and gently stirring it all together.
-Place casserole dish in cake pan with 1" hot water in pan.
Bake 60-70 mins.

This is great served warm or cold as dessert or breakfast!  Or if you're like me, an anytime snack.

Cocoa Indians

I have fond memories of my mom making these for us.  They're kind of like a brownie, only not as sweet and the consistency is more cake like.

Doesn't take much to make them!

1 C. flour                           1/2 C. shortening                          1/4 C. milk
1/4 C. cocoa powder         1 tsp. vanilla                                 1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs                                1/4 tsp baking soda                      1 C. sugar

Dump it all in a bowl and mix together.  Grease or spray 9x13 cake pan (or use smaller if you want them thicker. 9x13 will yield approx. 1/2 thickness).  Spread batter into pan  and bake for 25 minutes at 350* F.  Let set for 10-15 minutes before cutting (I use a pizza cutter, so easy and doesn't damage my pans).

Microwave Monkey Bread

My oven crapped out and all I want to do is bake. So I went scouring the web for some tasty recipes for either my microwave or my crock pot.

I came across several ways of making monkey bread in the microwave.  Next time I will double the "sauce" ingredients, but this is what I ended up doing for one can of biscuits.

1/3 C. brown sugar  
1/3 C. butter  ( I used stick and cut it into smaller chunks)
1 T. water
1/2 tsp cinnamon

(c) Keytee 2011

Dump the above into a microwave safe dish, cover with paper towel and nuke for 1 1/2 minutes. Cut biscuits into fourths.  Remove "sauce" from microwave and stir it up.  I dipped the biscuit pieces into the bowl of "sauce" then placed them into a round casserole dish with a mug in the center.  Nuked for 6 minutes.

Yes, I devoured the section missing shortly after removing it from the microwave.  It was not super sweet, but not tasteless either. However, as I said, I will double the sauce because I like sweet.

You could do this with a can of cinnamon rolls too and toss in a handful of raisins, pour a bit of milk over it while warm and it tastes just like bread pudding.

More Monkey Bread recipes using an oven!