Gooey Gorilla Goodness

Monkey Bread.

You’ve heard of it right?  It’s a breakfast bread that’s all gooey and delicious and you pull pieces off of the bread with your fingers and eat it all with your hands (run on sentence much?).  Haven’t tried it?  Well, you’re missing out!

It’s certainly not the healthiest thing out there (far from it), but go ahead, treat yourself once in awhile!  This is one of those things that’s perfect for a weekend brunch, especially if children are present.  The little pull apart pieces are perfect for little hands!

Well, my monkey bread is on a whole different level than regular monkey bread.  That’s probably because my recipe is courtesy of the mother of butter herself, Ms. Paula Deen.  It’s rare that I’ll recreate a Paula Deen recipe, mostly because I like my arteries to be clear, but this one is so worth every mouth watering bite.  I’ve made a few little tweaks, to make it even easier.

I know it’s the beginning of the year and everyone is in resolution mode, but hey, EVERYTHING IN MODERATION!  Is it healthy?  No!  Who cares?  Do I eat this a lot?  Nope, I’ve brought it tons of times and not touched a bite, but sometimes you just have to live a little and enjoy!

Gorilla Bread, adapted from the Food Network

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
• 2 (12-ounce) cans refrigerated biscuits (8 count)
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

-Spray a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.

-Mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small container (or use a rather large container b/c the perfect amount of sugar was left and it didn’t make sense to dirty another dish!)

-In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar over low heat, stirring well; set aside.

-Cut the cream cheese into 32 equal cubes.

-Divide each biscuit in half (they divide easily because of the flaky layers).  Put a piece of cream cheese in the center and wrap the dough around the cheese, forming a dumpling.  Roll this in the cinnamon sugar (like a snickerdoodle).

-Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bottom of the bundt pan. Place half of the prepared biscuits in the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, pour half of the melted butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle on 1/2 cup of nuts. Layer the remaining biscuits on top, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, pour the remaining butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts.

-Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Place a plate on top and invert.

Before I go, the winner of the Chocomize giveaway is eatnernotarunner who would love to try:

Milk chocolate with sea salt….and maybe some gummies in there!

Send me an email when you get a chance!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.  If you got a lot of snow, I hope you aren’t snowed in, and get to have a little fun!  I’ll see you all Monday for another giveaway (maybe I’ll post tomorrow, I don’t know yet!)

What’s your favorite brunch food?  What do you always bring to brunch?