I have to go on the record as saying my hands did not touch this cake except to eat it. It was Christmas morning. I wasn’t feeling well. I had barely slept through the night and then I slept till almost 10am – something I haven’t done on Christmas morning since maybe I was a teenager. My mom made this cake. I supervised. And by supervised I mean I screamed, “WAIT! This is one of my weekly cakes, I have to photograph it!” while she finished the assembly.
The pull-apart coffee cake is also called “monkey bread” and it’s a Christmas morning tradition I have with my mom. We’ve made it different ways over the years and each year it turns out better than the last. This year was no exception.The recipe is adapted from several we’ve found on the Pillsbury website. It’s very simple.
You grease a loaf pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pop a can of biscuits and roll the dough into bite-sized pieces. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a plastic food bag and shake the dough balls to coat.
Then you place the balls in the loaf pan. An optional (and recommended) step is to throw a handful of chopped walnuts in with the dough balls.
Melt 1/3 cup butter and mix it with the brown sugar and pour over the dough balls. Bake for about 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate.
This is delicious when served warm. I bet you could assemble it the night before and just bake it in the morning. Enjoy!
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 can refrigerated biscuits
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional
- 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease loaf pan with butter or cooking spray. In large plastic food storage bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon.
- Separate dough into bite-sized balls. Shake in bag to coat. Arrange in pan, adding walnuts among the dough balls.
- In small bowl, mix brown sugar and butter. Pour over biscuit pieces.
- Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Invert onto serving plate. Serve warm.