annemckinney

Monkey Bread

Monkey bread turned upside-down on a plate to show a teensy amount of pecans.
Monkey bread turned upside-down to show a paltry amount of pecans, which I’ve scaled up in my version below. Rolling the bits of dough in sugar helps caramelize the bottom, which is delightful.

Another heirloom family recipe from my Aunt Joyce Fearheiley! This makes a tasty and easy breakfast on a Sunday morning. I followed Aunt Joyce’s recipe mostly — I only had one can of biscuit dough on hand (and only two of us to eat it), so I reduced most ingredients to 1/3 and reduced the chopped nuts by half. (I also omitted the white sugar, though this is because I wasn’t quite awake enough when I read the recipe.) I’ve made some notes below to revise this recipe, as I think it could benefit from more nuts and other ingredients in proportion to the amount of dough.

Closeup of monkey bread, with a smaller amount of sugar, in a pan, topside-up
Monkey bread in the pan, right-side up. I could have used way more sugar and butter to make this a more luxurious breakfast.

My version:
1 can biscuit dough
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 c. chopped nuts (pecans work well for this)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 stick (8 tbsp.) butter

Aunt Joyce’s:
3 cans biscuit dough
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. chopped nuts
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 stick (8 tbsp.) butter

Put the nuts in the bottom of a greased 9 x 13″ pan (if making the smaller amount, they can squeeze into an 8 x 8″ square pan).

Cut the biscuits in fourths and roll in white sugar and cinnamon. Place them around in the pan.

Boil the brown sugar and butter until the sugar melts, and then pour over the biscuits. 

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.