Mini Monkey Bread

A couple of Friday's ago was my friend Melissa's birthday.  Her birthday fell on a Friday and since she had a long run on Saturday morning, she didn't really want to do anything Friday night (understandable!).  So instead, our friend Nadia organized a surprise brunch to be waiting for her when she came back.

There wasn't much noticed (I think we planned it in 2 days!), but Nadia put together a fabulous spread.  In addition to the typical breakfast foods (scrambled eggs, sausage patties, bacon, turkey bacon and latkes), Nadia made (from scratch!) brown butter cupcakes with a caramel icing - and bacon bits on top.  Amazing!

we put together a great spread, huh?

a-maz-ing

We also had 2 kinds of mimosa's and of course, coffee to wake everyone up.  It had been a long time since we'd all gotten together and it was a wonderful morning/afternoon of catching up.  Must do it again soon!

My contribution to the day was Mini Monkey Bread.  I love Monkey Bread - it's one of my favorite things to bring to brunches.  It's been a Christmas morning staple since the first time I made it at the first Pajama Christmas (yes, it's a thing in my family.  And no, it does not mean staying in our PJ's all day.  Maybe I'll explain sometime around Christmas).

It makes a ton though, so when it's not a large group, it's easy to overdo it on the Monkey Bread.  I knew there'd be a ton of other food at the birthday brunch so wanted to scale back the quantity.  I kinda just made these adjustments on my own!

The Mini Monkey Breads turned out delicious.  Everyone enjoyed them and I call them a success!  Plan on implementing this version at Christmas too.

Mini Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread Portion
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/4 cup melted butter, plus some extra (non-melted) butter

Frosting
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 tbsp milk

Bakeware
Muffin tin

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix sugar and cinnamon together, set aside
3. Cut the biscuits into 4 pieces
4. Toss the cut biscuit pieces in the cinnamon sugar
5. Using the non-melted butter, coat the inside of the muffin cups with the butter (could also use Pam for this step, but butter is so much better!)
6. Drop tiny pieces of butter into the bottom of each muffin cup (no science here, just whatever amount looks right)
7.  Distribute the cinnamon sugar coated biscuit pieces in the muffin cups.  I used 6-7 pieces per cup
8.  Drizzle the melted butter over each cup (you probably won't use all of it)
9.  Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar (there will be some leftover, but I can't figure out how to cut down the mixture)
10. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

While baking, make cream cheese frosting -

1.  Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until well blended

2.  Slowly mix in milk until frosting is at desired consistency

Once the monkey bread is ready, flip onto serving tray and top with desired amount of frosting!

Below are some additional photo's to make you drool.

Enjoy!

Ready to go into the over - look at the melted butter and cinnamon sugar goodness

Right out of the oven

When flipped out of pan with buttery deliciousness

Frosting waiting to be applied