Monkey Bread

I was introduced to this culinary confection by my coworker Zack a few months ago. It's basically the Pillsbury biscuit dough you find in the refrigerated section at the store baked into a big bundt cake form with some sugar and cinnamon. And you pull it apart to eat it. Sound trashy, no? But no matter, it's very good and simple to make. The origins of this cake are unclear, some say it's a Texas invention, others point to LA where the recipe first appeared in the LA Times in 1946. And the recipe on the Pillsbury website calls for using the Buttermilk dough and adding in nuts and raisins and anybody who knows me how I feel about these things in baked goods (no, thank you). Zack and his mother cautioned against using this, they warned that these would not be tasty and I trust them.

I baked one earlier this week with Christine over with a variation. Instead of all white sugar that Zack's mamma's recipe calls for, I mixed in some brown sugar. And I'm currently got one in the oven for a birthday in the office tomorrow and I think I've got it down. Also, very important, TAKE NOTE! Just like how there are all kinds of boys out there, there are all kinds of Pillsbury biscuit dough. I was careful to not get the Buttermilk kind. But then when I pop opened all three tubes of it, I noticed that the dough for two of them were yellowy-orange in color and the other was white. Of course, I freaked out and grabbed the wrapping from the rubbish and carefully inspected them to find that the orangey ones were thankfully not Buttermilk but the regular kind but in the "Butter Tastin'" variety, whereas the white colored one was the "Original". I just went over to the product website and yes, indeed, there are many kinds of these biscuits. There's "Grands!" and there's "Flaky Layers" and then each kind have different flavors. So inspect those tubes carefully, never get anything that says Buttermilk, and try to get the same kind so it's consistent. It's confusing, I say!

Ingredients:

• 3 cans/tubes of refrigerated biscuit dough (just don’t get Buttermilk)
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar (not packed)
  
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 1 stick of butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Open packages of dough and cut each biscuit into quarters. Mix sugar and cinnamon together. Roll the dough pieces in the mixture. Set aside the leftover sugar and cinnamon mixture. Grease bundt pan. Place dough pieces inside pan to fill. Melt butter and mix with leftover sugar and cinnamon mixture. Drizzle over dough. Bake for 30 minutes. Recommended: This cake will poof out so put a baking tray directly underneath the bundt cake pan or on the rack under it to catch anything that falls over and out. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes. Remove cake from pan.