This article was originally published on upstateramblings.com.
Apples are one of my favorite fruits and not just during the fall but all year long. Around here apples are easy to get year-round so even when it is not apple season, they are good quality fruit that is abundant and inexpensive. My family and I love fresh apples and always make lots of delicious apple desserts, like these quick and easy monkey bread muffins.
Monkey Bread is tasty, but a traditional recipe makes too much for my family. Well, really too much for me because I am frequently home all day. If a dessert is just sitting in the kitchen it is like it is calling my name and I have a hard time resisting! And when you have something like a Bundt pan full of monkey bread the serving size can be pretty subjective. It is easy to cut a piece way too big and the next thing you know I have over indulged.
Monkey Bread Muffins
So I like to make individually sized desserts where the serving size is obvious, because then I am more aware of how much I am eating. In addition, a standard monkey bread recipe uses 2 or 3 tubes of biscuits and makes enough for 15 people, way too much for a family dessert, at least for my small family.
So I decided to reduce a basic monkey bread recipe and make individual servings by baking it in muffin tins. This makes the recipe perfect for my family because it makes 6-8 muffins, enough for everyone but not enough to leave leftovers for days.
I added an apple to the recipe just because I love apples and had some in the refrigerator. You could leave the apple out of the recipe and it would still be delicious! Alternatively, you could add some pecans or walnuts to the muffins to complement the apple flavor even more.
How to Make Monkey Bread Muffins
Theses muffins are simple to make, since they use refrigerated biscuits as a base. I used Pillsbury Grands biscuits, but any type of buttermilk biscuit would work well in the recipe.
I took the eight refrigerated biscuits out of their tube and divided each of the biscuits into six pieces. Then I mixed cinnamon and sugar in a gallon sized bag and threw all the biscuit pieces into the bag. I cored, peeled and chopped an apple and added it to the bag and shook the bag to coated biscuits and apples with a tasty mixture of cinnamon sugar.
This is a fun recipe for kids to help with, since they can easily do things like breaking the biscuits apart and shaking the bag. Kids as young as 3 or 4 should be able to help with parts of this recipe and feel like they are really involved in making the recipe.
Once everything was well mixed divided it up into muffin tins. How many muffins this makes recipe makes depends on the size of your muffin pan. I used a standard size muffin pan which fit about six pieces of biscuit and a few pieces of apple in each. You could also use a larger muffin pan and make six muffins if you prefer bigger, bakery sized muffins.
Then I melted some butter and mixed in brown sugar. I topped off the monkey bread muffins with the butter and brown sugar mixture. The topping caramelizes and drips down into the muffins as they bake, and makes a gooey, delicious muffin. The individual pieces of biscuit puff up and meld together with apple bits in between.
Apple Pie Monkey Bread
These muffins are miniature monkey bread. The addition of the apples gives the muffins the cinnamony taste of apple fritters or apple pie with less fuss. The muffins pull apart into bite sized goodness.
Some muffin recipes like ham and cheese muffins or peanut butter muffins are excellent as a side dish for dinner a simple breakfast. These apple monkey bread muffins are definitely more of a dessert muffin!
But for a special occasion, like Christmas breakfast or Easter I’d serve them for breakfast. They are also excellent for making for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, because they are simple enough for kids to do a lot of the work! Leftover muffins can be stored in an airtight container for two or three days – but I doubt that your family will leave them sitting around for that long.
Apple Pie Monkey Bread Muffins
These apple monkey bread muffins are delicious and easy to make with only six simple ingredients. Refrigerator biscuits are turned into a gooey treat with caramelized apples.
Yield: 8
PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOK TIME: 15 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 can refrigerated biscuits
- 1 apple
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Grease the cups of a muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Mix the white sugar and cinnamon in a gallon sized re-closeable bag.
- Separate the biscuits, and cut or break each into 6 to 8 pieces and add to the bag.
- Peel, core and dice the apple, and add the apple pieces to the bag. Shake it well to distribute the cinnamon and sugar over the pieces of biscuit and apple.
- Melt the butter in the microwave, and stir in the brown sugar.
- Add a spoonful of the butter mixture to the bottom of 8 muffin cups.
- Add the biscuit and apple pieces to the 8 muffin cups and press them down.
- Spoon the remaining butter mixture over the top.
- Bake for 15 minutes, until the biscuit pieces start to brown.
- Invert the muffin tin onto a plate and serve the monkey bread muffins.
Notes
You might want to put a cookie sheet under the muffin tin in case the butter and brown sugar mixture drips.
