No more MONKEYS jumping on the bed....

Monkey bread. 

The first time I heard of this concoction I was beside myself. HOW can something named after a hairy beast that likes to poop on its hand and fling it at passerby be any good? And why on earth would you promote such a thing?

Then I tasted the bubbled up cinnamony tastiness.

OMG! OMG!

That was about all I could come up with.

I learned VERY quickly that I could only take 2 MAYBE 3 pieces of it and then STOP completely because otherwise I would need the entire vial of insulin to counter act the sugar that this bread has. You see, I am Diabetic and most of everything I bake I dont eat. I send to work with my husband and he gives it to his little worker bees. I have been Diabetic for such a long time that in all reality most times I dont miss the sweets.

Tell me I can no longer bake and I might have to rip your head off. :)

My monkey bread I hear is the "nectar of the gods". It has been requested SO many times from the little worker bees that I have gotten sick of making it. My husband loves it and today being our 9th wedding anniversary, ROUND OF APPLAUSE, I feel I have to make it for him. And because its SUPER easy and SUPER delicious I had to share the recipe!

Ingredients
3 (12-ounce) cans refrigerated biscuits
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

Method

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cut biscuits into quarters. In a bag, combine sugar. 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and nutmeg. Drop biscuits into bag; shake until coated. 
3. Stack the biscuits in a greased tube or bundt pan.
4. In a sauce pan combine remaining 3 ingredients. Heat until brown sugar dissolves, but do not boil. Pour hot syrup over biscuits.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until rolls test done. 
6. Wait 5 minutes before turning out onto serving plate.

POUND cake

I love waking to the smell of coffee. All I really do is turn on the coffee pot. I have a fabulous hubs who sets everything up for me the night before, so all I really have to do is push the button. :)

This week I had most of the week off. I don't know know why, it just worked out that way. I work in a specialty Italian wine store and this week the manager wanted to take a few extra days, it just so happened they were my days. Worked out great for my baking.

I made a delicious pound cake. Made from an original recipe, using a pound of all the ingredients. It turned out to be a fabulous pound cake! I love breads. I love cakes. My girlish figure is a great example of HOW much I love them. LOL

If you are baking in small tins, you will want cut baking time in half. And always adjust your baking time for the pans you use. You know your pans better than anyone else, so you should be able to adjust accordingly. I particularly like using my stone loaf pan. A lot of my friends have complained about their stones and how they don't like them but if you season them properly and care for them in the correct manner they really make for better dishes.

No my loaf pan is not dirty, just very well seasoned. To season a stone you rub softened butter on all sides and bake at 350°F. for about 20 minutes. Then just clean as directed. For deeper pans such as the loaf stone, muffin stone or bundt cake stones you may need to lightly spray with non-stick baking spray before putting batter in. But if you have never tried baking in a stone I HIGHLY recommend it.

This recipe can be easily halved so that you don't end up with 3 pound cakes and you can also freeze the cake after baking. Whats more you can slice it up and freeze the individual slices so that when you got a hankering for some pound cake all you have to do is thaw out one slice!

Original Pound Cake

2 cups butter, softened
3 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup milk

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Grease three 8 x 4 inch loaf pans, then line them with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the flour alternately with the milk, mixing until just incorporated.
3. Pour batter evenly into prepared loaf pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes. (if using a stone loaf pan check after 50 minutes.) or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes come out clean.
4. After removing them from the oven immediately loosen cake edges with a knife. Cool in pan 10 minutes, remove. Remove parchment paper. Cool completely on wire racks.

Apple coffee cake

Apple season is in FULL force. And I am not one to be left behind on ANYTHING kitchen related. I have been baking and cooking with apples for weeks now.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Isn't that what they say?
What I love best about baking is that my house gets all nice and cozy warm and smells better than any candle can make it smell. Of course my waist line could do without it, but I can't say that I MISS my girlish figure, I am still carrying around my toddler figure. :)
Apple coffee cake is something I have always wanted to try my hand at and a post by Betty Crocker led me to the path that I wanted to take. Of course I changed a bit here and there to make it my own. Not a lot of changes but a thing here and there. I personally don't like nuts in my breads and desserts so I purposely leave those out. But if you are nuts about nuts, by all means try it with them mixed in.
One of the nice things about making this coffee cake was that everything was mixed my hand. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE using my mixer, but for something this fast it was nice to not have to pull it out of its little cubby hole.
I did end up doubling the coffee cake batter portion of the cake as I think my square pan is a bit larger than 9 inches. It made a fabulously puffy bread that I am sure you will enjoy with your morning coffee.

STREUSEL TOPPING

• 2/3 cup Original Bisquick mix
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup cold butter

COFFEE CAKE

• 2 cups Original Bisquick mix
• 2/3 cup milk
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 medium cooking apples, peeled and thinly sliced (2 cups)

GLAZE

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 to 3 tsps milk

1. heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch square pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix 2/3 cup Bisquick mix, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cut in butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until crumbly; set aside.
2. In medium bowl, stir together 2 cups Bisquick mix, 2/3 cup milk, the granulated sugar and egg; beat vigorously for 30 seconds with a spoon. Spread half of the batter in the prepared pan. arrange apple slicked on batter; sprinkle with half of the streusel topping. Spread with remaining batter; sprinkle with remaining topping. Sprinkle with nuts.
3. Bake about 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on cooling rack for about 20 minutes. In a small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth enough to drizzle. Drizzle glaze over warm, NOT HOT, coffee cake.