It took me awhile to get on the Pinterest train, but once I did I was full steam ahead. It’s incredibly addicting and all it takes is one interesting pin for you to fall into it’s blackhole and the next thing you know, it’s 3am and you’ve added more recipes, crafts, home design, fashion and vacation ideas to your boards than you could possibly ever eat, make, do, see or experience…but it was fun and inspiring and you can’t wait to get sucked into the Pinterest vortex again!

I was getting ready to visit with my sisters-by-choice and their kids last year and I thought it would be fun to try some of the awesome recipes I had pinned, but never really had a reason to try – like the Cinnamon Roll Pancakes I told you about before. One of those recipes was for Monkey Bread. While I had to google why it’s called monkey bread – they pick at their food with their fingers and that’s how your’e supposed to eat this bit of breakfast awesomeness that could double as dessert – but delicious by any other name is still delicious!!

Basically, you take a can of flaky rolls (you can use croissant dough and even the un-flaky kind too), cut them up, mix them with melted butter, sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon (I also like to get fancy and add walnuts and/or raisins), dump it all in a pan, bake it and then give glory to God for inspiring someone to make this and then not be stingy with sharing how they did it because your taste buds will never be the same.

Here are the specifics:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cans flaky refrigerated biscuits
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts – optional
• 1/2 cup raisins – optional
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, melted

In a baggie, combine white sugar and cinnamon. Separate and quarter the biscuits and toss in the baggie to thoroughly coat. Melt butter in a small bowl and mix in brown sugar.

Pretty presentation calls for a bundt pan, but you can use a loaf pan or cake pan or whatever you have available as long as it has sides. If your friends or family don’t like to share or you’re concerned with portion control because these are so delicious you will eat the entire thing (speaking from personal experience), you can even make these in a muffin pan for individual serving sizes.

Lightly coat the bottom and sides of the pan with some cooking spray (do not use the spray with flour). If you’re going the raisin/walnut route, sprinkle some on the bottom of the pan and then dump the bits of biscuits in the pan. Add any left over cinnamon sugar in the butter/brown sugar mix and pour all over making sure no exposed piece of biscuit is bare.  If going the raisin/walnut route, I like to add more of that in as I go so every piece will have some and not just the top…kind of like layering a lasagna Then you bake at 350 degrees per the instructions on the can bearing in mind that you are baking twice as much so it will need to bake for twice as long – about 30 minutes.

When it’s done, take it out and let it rest for a couple minutes, but whatever you do….do NOT walk away and forget about it. The butter and sugar will harden and stick to the pan and you will have to destroy – and not in a good way – your monkey bread to get it out. It will still be delicious, but an absolute mess (Also, speaking from personal experience!). So, after it’s had a minute or two to set up, flip it on to a serving dish and enjoy!

Monkey Bread has now become a brunch staple for me and the good news is that it’s entirely adaptable to whatever you’re in the mood for. You can use it to make garlic bread or crumb cake or pizza bites or add blueberries or caramel or pumpkin or bacon or strawberries – the options are endless! – and it’s always a huge hit.

Pinterest for the win!