January 16, 2015
At Home with Friends

3 comments

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

This is a recipe I used to make years ago using store bought biscuits.

I was testing it two weeks before the New Year’s Day party and it was cooling on my kitchen counter one evening when two friends stopped by for an impromptu dinner. We sat at dinner commiserating about how we had eaten too much over the holidays and how we were cutting back on sugar and carbs.

One of my friends spied this cake and asked about it. I told him it was a test for New Year’s Day but I wasn’t totally happy with the results and wasn’t going to include it. My friends listened to all my criticisms and then insisted, just to be helpful, to taste test it. They made it through half the cake before they pronounced it New Year’s Day worthy.

In keeping with our plan to cut down on sugar and carbs, my friend volunteered to take the second half to work. I’ll never know whether it actually made it, but I can be sure it didn’t go to waste.

PUMPKIN MONKEY BREAD

EVENT: New Year’s Day Brunch

SERVES: 12-16 People

Ingredients

For topping:

3 tablespoons melted butter

1/3 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts *)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup granulated sugar

For monkey bread:

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

2 10-oz. cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup (8 tablespoons) butter

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

3 oz. cream cheese

Equipment

6 cup non-stick fluted tube or bundt pan

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make topping:

1. Brush pan with ½ melted butter. Sprinkle half the nuts and half the cinnamon and 1/8 cup sugar.

Make monkey bread:

1. In a large bowl, combine cinnamon, sugar and cloves.

2. Separate each can of dough into 10 biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters.

3. In palm of hand, form each quarter into a small ball and roll each ball in cinnamon-and-sugar mixture.

4. Place each ball in pan making several rows.

5. When you have used one can of biscuits, sprinkle remaining topping ingredients: chopped nuts, cinnamon, sugar and melted butter over pan.

6. Continue with second can of biscuits.

7. In a 1-quart saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, pumpkin and cream cheese over medium / low heat until butter is melted. Whisk mixture until smooth. Don’t worry if pieces of cream cheese aren’t blended. Allow mixture to cool slightly.

8. Pour mixture over biscuit in pan.

9. Bake 30-35 minutes until the top is golden. Cool in pan 10-15 minutes.

10. Place heatproof dish upside down over bundt pan and turn pan over. Pan should easily lift off.

11. Allow to cool completely and store covered room temperature.

 

* A NOTE: I buy the nuts — walnuts or pecans — at Costco.