Buckeye Monkey Bread Muffins

Can we just talk about last weekend’s game for a minute? Even though I am sure many of you readers did not watch, I can NOT believe we won. Not in the “wow we played so awesome”, but the “wow we are not looking good yet somehow the other team is doing worse”.

Which does not really bode well for today’s game against Nebraska. Even though they are (4-1) at #21 and we are (5-0) at #12, their wins look more significant than ours thus far. We have only scored over 35 points once in the first game again Miami of Ohio, and they have scored over 35 in all but one game (their win last week against Wisconsin).

Today is a night game, but we get to play at home so hopefully the home field advantage will be a reality. But anyway, now to redirect to these monkey bread muffins.

Yes I made monkey bread into muffins. I thought they were much more friendly for a work atmosphere (I brought them for lab meeting yesterday) being baked into individual portions. No need to worry about other people’s fingers prodding into the next person’s section.

And they are super easy to make! No bread-making skills needed as the recipe starts with two cans of refrigerated biscuits, cut into quarters, stuffed with cream cheese filling, coated in chocolate-cinnamon-sugar, and finished by baking in a muffin pan. I bet I could do something similar to a recipe for Cruffins which uses two cans of refrigerated crescent dough.

As for their tastiness level, I am sure I don’t need to elaborate once I tell you that they are stuffed with a cream cheese-peanut butter filling and coated in cocoa-sugar. I was tempted to cover them with a chocolate sauce of sorts as well, but it was not necessary once they paid a visit to my taste buds.

One year ago: Oatmeal Meatballs with Spinach

BUCKEYE MONKEY BREAD MUFFINS

Makes 20 muffins

Ingredients:

2-12 oz. cans (10 in each) refrigerated biscuits, cut into fourths

1-3/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 20 muffin cups in two muffin pans, or use liners. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon. In a small bowl, place the melted butter. In another medium bowl, blend together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, peanut butter and vanilla until smooth.
3. To stuff the biscuits, flatten one of the quarters in the palm of your hand. Place about 1 teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture in the middle, fold the dough over and pinch the sides together. Try your best to roll into a ball and prevent the filling from oozing out, but don’t worry about it being perfect. Repeat with remaining quarters.
4. Dip the dough into the melted butter, dredge in the sugar mixture, and then layer 4 in each muffin pan – 3 on the bottom, one on top. I tried to face any unsealed edges towards the middle of the muffin, so that if it oozed out at all while cooking it would stay inside. Press down slightly.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes and then allow to cool in the pan for another 10 minutes (this helps them stick together). Serve warm.

Source: Adapted from Bake or Break.