Cream cheese monkey bread

I cannot think about this delicious monkey bread without also thinking about my good friend Laurie (who I occasionally call Larry). Larry and I have much in common. Every time I see her, which is not often, I am reminded how much I adore her. I love that girl. Oh how I wish I could talk her into moving to Minnesota!

Larry and I both believe that cream cheese makes everything better, and that is why this bread makes me think of her. It's true. Cream cheese does make everything better. 

I had been thinking about doing a twist on good ol' gooey and delicious monkey bread. But what could possibly make monkey bread any better than it is? Then it occurred to me. CREAM CHEESE! It makes everything better, right? A few months after I had that thought, I saw in a magazine that someone had my same idea. I figured I had better hurry up and make it myself, so here we go!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with cooking spray and set aside. 

In a medium bowl, combine:

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Set aside.

Cut 20 cubes into an 8-ounce block of cream cheese.

Slice 10 discs of dough from each of two 12-ounce tubes of refrigerated flaky buttermilk biscuits. You will have 20 total dough discs. Set the discs on a flat surface and place one cube of cream cheese into the center of each piece of dough.  

Wrap the edges of the dough up and around each cube of cream cheese.

Melt 3/4 cup of butter in a small bowl in the microwave. Set aside.

Place 10 of the dough-wrapped cream cheese cubes, cheese-side-up, into the bottom of the prepared pan. 

Top with half of the sugar-cinnamon mixture and half of the melted butter.

Top with the remaining dough-wrapped cream cheese cubes, cheese-side-down, and the remaining sugar mixture and butter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and serve warm! Cover and refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days.

I'll be honest. I ate AT LEAST half of this thing by myself. I felt like a drug addict, eating just a few more bites, in a corner of our kitchen where nobody could see me. 

Cream cheese does make everything better, ooey gooey monkey bread not excluded. YUM.

Click here for a printable recipe!

No yeast cinnamon rolls

While my boys and I were in North Carolina visiting family a few weeks ago, I did a search for a quick (no yeast) cinnamon roll recipe to make for breakfast one morning. These delicious-looking rolls popped up from Young Married Chic. Mostly I wanted quick, but was hoping for delicious, too. While we ate, I heard the comment, "These are the best cinnamon rolls I have ever eaten." That comment came from my seventy-five-year-old father, who happens to love food more than anything the world. Anything in the world besides his family, that is.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Pour 1 tablespoon of melted butter into a 9-inch round cake pan. Brush to coat the entire perimeter of the pan.

Make the filling.

In a small bowl, combine:

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon salt

Add 1 tablespoon of melted butter and stir until crumbly. Set aside.

Make the dough.

In a medium bowl, combine:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, combine:

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until the liquid is just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Roll the dough into a 9x12-inch rectangle. Brush the surface of the dough with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.

Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges. Gently press the filling into the dough, and loosen the dough from the work surface. Starting at a long edge, roll the dough to form a log.

Pinch seam to seal. Seam-side down, cut the log into eight equal pieces. Place one roll in the center of the prepared pan, and the seven remaining rolls around it in a circle. 

Brush with 2 tablespoons of melted butter. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 28 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow rolls to cool for 5 minutes. While the rolls are cooling, prepare the glaze.

In a small bowl, combine:

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons buttermilk, at room temperature

Whisk until smooth. Add 4 tablespoons of confectioners' sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Whisk until a smooth glaze forms, about 30 seconds.

Use a knife to loosen the rolls from the outer edge of the pan. Place a plate over the top of the pan and invert the rolls onto the plate. Place a serving platter on the inverted rolls and flip them over again.

Drizzle the glaze evenly over the rolls and serve.

So there you go, friends. The best cinnamon rolls my food-loving father has ever eaten!

Click here for a printable recipe!

Pecan-maple sticky rolls

 

This is Week #36 of my 2011 cooking challenge! Click on the above graphic to view all P&TC recipes. All recipes created for this challenge come from the Food and Wine Annual Cookbook 2010: An Entire Year of Recipes.

This week has been a nutty one, so it has not the best week to be behind in cooking and blogging. Somehow, I'm managing to get things accomplished. And thankfully, these sticky rolls, much like my last recipe, were easy to make. 

I have never made sticky rolls quite like these. They are filled with comforting deliciousness, which suits this cool fall weather quite nicely. I loved them. Everyone in my family loved them. 

To begin, preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Spread 3/4 cup whole pecans in a pie plate and toast in the oven for about 6 minutes, or until fragrant. Set aside.

Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a food processor, pulse to combine:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

Add 1 stick of cubed, chilled butter to the the flour mixture and pulse until it becomes the size of small peas.

Add 1 cup of buttermilk and pulse a few times, just until a soft dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead 3 times. Pat or roll the dough into an 8x12-inch rectangle. Brush with 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

In a small bowl, combine:

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the dough.

My cute flour-duster and dough-shaper.

Beginning at a long side, roll the dough into a tight cylinder.

Pinch the seam closed and cut the dough into 12 slices.

In a small bowl, combine:

6 tablespoons pure maple syrup

2 tablespoons melted butter

Divide the syrup-butter mixture among the muffin cups. Scatter the toasted pecans in the cups.

Top with the dough pinwheels. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 18 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Place a rack over the rolls and invert them onto the rack. Replace any pecans that get stuck in the cups and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Click here for a printable recipe!

Cinnamon twists

Oh goodness, these cinnamon twists are good. Sugary, cinnamony, frosting-laden deliciousness. I made them as a middle-of-the-day treat, but they would also be great for breakfast or dessert or a midnight snack or a side dish to chicken. There is truly no wrong time or place to consume them.

They do take a while to make since the dough needs to rise for a couple hours, so plan ahead!

(Source: Christmas Baking 2010 magazine)

Start out by grabbing a large bowl.

Stir together:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 package active dry yeast

Set this aside. Pull out a small saucepan and stir the following together over medium heat:

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter

1 teaspoon salt

Stir until the mixture is warm and until the butter has almost melted.

Add this to the flour mixture.

Add two eggs.

Do you see the cute pipe-smoking guy?

Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, while constantly scraping the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat on high speed for 3 more minutes.

Add 2 1/2 more cups of flour.

Stir it all together. It would be easiest to use a wooden spoon for this part, I imagine. My wooden spoon has mysteriously gone missing (Elijah!), so I can't tell you this for certain.

Place dough on a flat, floured surface.

Knead in enough flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic. This takes between 3 and 5 minutes of kneading. Shape it into a ball.

Place the ball of dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning it once so the entire surface is greased.

Cover and let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in size. This takes about 2 hours. Punch dough down and place onto a lightly floured surface. Cover and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

While your tired dough is resting, melt 1/4 cup of butter in a small saucepan over low heat.

Add:

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix well and allow the mixture to cool.

With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle (or oval; hey, it's not easy to roll dough into the shape of a rectangle!). The dough should be between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch in thickness.

Spread the butter-brown-sugar mixture over the dough. It does not have to be even.

Cut the dough crosswise into 1-inch strips.

Fold each strip in half, end to end, and twist several times. Arrange the twists on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets or on 2 lightly greased baking sheets.

Cover and allow them to rise for 45 more minutes. Now would be a good time to preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

While the twists are baking, combine in a small bowl:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2-3 tablespoons milk

Drizzle the frosting over the twists when they are still warm.

My two oldest boys were out playing in the snow when I finished these, so only Sammy was around to witness my unabashed indulging. Incredible!

Click here for a printable recipe!