Homemade Monkey Bread - No Need for Canned Biscuits

Pull-Apart Bread or Monkey Bread seems to be a very popular breakfast/dessert dish. It is easy, sugary and can be made in a variety of different ways.  I woke up this morning and decided that's what I want with my morning coffee. Perfect combination: Coffee and sugary dough. Yum. Monkey bread is not meant to be a healthy breakfast option so I am not going to kid myself into thinking that's what I have done here.  We still have butter in the dough and it is loaded with sugar. But, if I can take a couple ingredients and make it a little bit better without taking any of the expected goodness away I consider that a success.  First of all, I am going to encourage you to try to make the recipe with the Southern Buttermilk Biscuits recipe I have found.  Biscuits out of a can are fine and easy, but they are still biscuits out of a can.  For an extra 15 minutes I can create a much better dough for this delicious treat. I also substituted coconut oil for the butter. Coconut oil is not a low calorie or low fat alternative but it tastes good and as long as you are using a virgin coconut oil there are potential health benefits. My rule of thumb...everything in moderation. Which seems to be in line with this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/dining/02Appe.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

On with Monkey Bread. In my quest to make the perfect biscuit I found a recipe that has been the closest to what I would categorize as a big, fluffy pillow of goodness.  Below is the link to the recipe and the best part about this recipe is it includes important tips for handling and preparing biscuit dough. Follow them and you will be amazed.

http://southern.food.com/recipe/southern-buttermilk-biscuits-26110

Take the above recipe and make it into Monkey Bread....Totally Delicious.

Monkey Bread / Pull-Apart Bread

Emmie Loveless

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 15 min

INGREDIENTS

1 Recipe : Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

¼ cup melted coconut oil plus 1 tablespoon

½ cup chopped pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

With 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, grease the bottom and sides of a 9” round cake pan.

Prepare the Southern Buttermilk Biscuits following recipe instructions. When you have the dough patted out to 1”, cut the dough into about 1” x 1” cubes. Microwave ¼ cup of coconut oil until melted, about 30 seconds. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.  Create an assembly line starting with your biscuits, then the coconut oil, sugar and cake pan.  Take 1 biscuit and dip it in the coconut oil, then dip it in the sugar mixture and place in the middle of the cake pan.  Continue this process placing each piece of dough touching each other around the pan until it is full.  Sprinkle the pecans on top. Place in the oven for 14-16 minutes or until the biscuits are cooked and the pecans are golden brown.

Remove from oven and let it sit to cool for about 5 minutes before serving. 

*Tip: Since coconut oil has a sweetness to it, you can use half the sugar you would normally use and just dip the top and bottom of the dough pieces into your sugar mixture. 

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