Granted I have a hard time calling these muffins, they’re really more like buttery baked donuts piled inside a muffin liner, but tis the season to be indulgent. Actually these are mini-brioche liners that I got from fancy flours, but you can really use them for whatever you’d like. I loved them and thought they’d be cute and funky for these muffins. Monkey bread brings me back to 8th grade Home Ec, where we made a traditional bundt pan-sized version using store-bought biscuit dough. But I STRONGLY urge you, if you have a few extra minutes, please try making this dough yourself. It’s really not that hard, saves you money, and the taste/texture is amazing.
This would also be a great project to do with kids — plus you could use a few extra hands rolling all the little balls of dough. If they don’t quite have the dexterity for forming balls, have them man the butter/sugar/cinnamon station instead. Boyfriends work well for any of these tasks as well. But you can save them from doing extra dishes by baking these in liners rather than right in the pan — I love mine too much to make him do that kind of labor.
Recipe adapted from Rachel Ray
1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled
3 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tbsp milk- Move an oven rack to the bottom third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees. Line 1 muffin tin with 12 liners
– In a small bowl, microwave 4 tbsp butter and the maple syrup at high power until melted, about 30 seconds
– In a small bowl, mix together 1/3 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon
– In a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder, the remaining 2 tbsp of granulated sugar, and salt. Pulse until well combined. Cut the remaining butter into small pieces and pulse together until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
– Pulse in the buttermilk until the dough comes together.
– Transfer to a floured work surface, and pat dough into a 10″ square. Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to quarter the dough, then cut each quarter into 16 equal pieces. Roll into balls
– Dip each ball in the maple butter, then the sugar mixture. Place 4-5 coated balls into each muffin cup press down gently.
– Tent the muffin tin with tin foil and bake until cooked through and golden, about 15-17 minutes.
– Mix together confectioners sugar and milk to make the glaze. While the muffins are still warm, drizzle the glaze over the muffins. Serve warm.
Recipe yields 12 muffins
Mmmmmm, those muffins look scrumptious! Yum. :)
Cute! These look fun to make.
Cute! These look fun to make.
Ooh…these look yummy!!
Wow, these look addictive. I doubt I could stop at one.
We are Monkey Bread Freaks so I’m super anxious to try these! Happy New Year. PS ~ I’m featuring your PB Cup cookies on my site today… they were AWESOME!
These look amazing. bravo
madalina
these are precious!
Made ’em this morning! So good!
These were delicious and extremely easy to make! Thanks so much for sharing! :)
Hey! Just a quick question. I intend on making these tomorrow. :D You say 1/3 +2 tbps granulatd sugar….do you mean 1/3 cup + 2 tbps??
Mems — yes that is what I meant, thanks for pointing that out, I’ll fix it above :) Hope they came out well!
I just found this blog tonight & just looking at this ONE page, I am finding myself lightheaded with the most delightful sugar coma I’ve ever experienced, and I haven’t even eaten any of it! I think this place might be a sneak-peak of Heaven. :0 )
I just found this blog tonight & just looking at this ONE page, I am finding myself lightheaded with the most delightful sugar coma I’ve ever experienced, and I haven’t even eaten any of it! I think this place might be a sneak-peak of Heaven. :0 )
Erica, your photos are beautiful and this might make my boyfriend cry from happiness. Thank you for posting this!
I want to turn these into pumpkin monkey bread muffins. I’ve heard you can substitute pumpkin for the butter in recipes. Any thoughts?? I don’t want to mess up these delicious looking muffins!!!
Sarah – sorry I really am not sure about the pumpkin. I avoid working with pumpkin puree haha so you’ll have to do a google search and see what you can find from other bloggers! Good luck :)
Made them this morning – yum! I ended up baking them longer than you said – wasn’t sure when they were finished. Big hit!
Hey Erica! This recipe is great! I made it twice already. Any thoughts on how I can make this ahead of time and just bake it when i’m ready to serve it? Tried freezing a couple of them then bake, did not work well AT ALL!
Anonymous – I’m sorry I don’t have any advice for making these ahead of them. Did you try freezing them after they were baked but before they were glazed? I feel like that might work but I’m really not sure!
Hey Erica!!
These are awesome! I love your blog and have been wanting to make these since I saw you post them since I LOVE monkey bread!! I made them today as a snack for the superbowl party I’m going to!
I actually made them in mini-cupcake tins and got 36 out of one recipe! So excited for my friends to try these!!
Thanks :)
Rayna
These looks delicious! Do you think this could be easily adapted to be baked in a bundt pan like traditional monkey bread? I just got a bundt pan and am looking for ways to use it. Most other recipes I have seen for monkey bread either call for packaged biscuit dough (gross) or yeast (time-consuming) so I’m excited to see that your recipe calls for neither of these ingredients.
Erica — September 22nd, 2015 @ 11:00 am
Yes I think it would adapt well! The baking time will probably be longer though, so you’ll have to monitor it throughout the baking process to make sure it isn’t raw in the middle. Good luck!