Cooking Lesson #212: Monkey Bread

… from the California Kitchen

How you doin’? There is this middle generation in the United States that never learned to cook by being tied to their mother’s, grandmother’s or even their father’s apron strings to learn how to cook. A lot of our country’s traditions are tied to the foods we eat. Now, while so many of us are locked down is the perfect time to teach our children a little bit about cooking.
 
It doesn’t have to be complicated, and it isn’t just limited to the “girls.” It’s an opportunity to teach everybody in the family (dads included) to try their hand at cooking. I am not suggesting that everything should be made from scratch or that the ingredients must be expensive… just a little something to get everyone’s feet just a little wet and begin to learn how to cook.
 
This recipe starts with refrigerated biscuit dough—the kind that Poppin’ Fresh jumps out of in all the Pillsbury commercials. Poppin' Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising mascot for the Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. I worked at the production house where the Doughboy was born. Many commercials from 1965 until 2005 concluded with a human finger poking the Doughboy's stomach. The Doughboy responds when his stomach is poked by giggling. I still have the original Doughboy Model in “my collection of stuff.”
 
Okay, get off your cell phone and Facebook and supervise your kids to bake homemade Monkey Bread with the help of Poppin’ Fresh. This recipe is for Mable and Monty and their moms or dads. They’ll love this recipe because it is so much fun to eat and it is so simple to make—and they can do a lot of them themselves which they’ll love.
 
Prep time for kids:  5 minutes
Prep time for adults:  15 minutes
Bake time:  35 minutes
Yield:  8 to 12 servings
 
Ingredients
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough (Pillsbury or private label house brand)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
 
Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350⁰ F.
2. Grease a tube pan with food release spray.
3. Mix 3/4 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons cinnamon in a large plastic bag. Set aside.
4. Quarter the biscuits with kitchen shears. Dip shears in water after each cut to keep the biscuits from getting too sticky.
5. Place about 8 pieces of biscuit dough at a time in the plastic bag; shake in the sugar mixture and place the pieces in a sprayed tube pan. Do this until all biscuit dough pieces are used.
6. Melt the butter and mix in 3/4 cup sugar; stir until the sugar is dissolved.
7. Pour mixture over biscuits.
8. Bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes.

ChefSecret:  If desired, a thin mixture of confectioners’ sugar and milk frosting can be poured over warm pull-a-part Monkey Bread pieces.  You can also add fruit, like raisins or bananas, and also nuts and chocolate chips.

Covid-19 Quip of the Day: “When all is said and done and the government does a postmortem on the Covid-19 pandemic they will find out it was a conspiracy between the makers of Charmin and Scott toilet tissue.”
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong and positive, stay well and safe and be kind to others. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. Thanks for reading.

#Baking #MonkeyBread #Bread #Pillsbury #PoppinFresh #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 

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