Breakfast Berry Monkey Bread Cups

Berry Monkey Bread Cups – How to Love Cooking.

Breakfast Berry Monkey Bread Cups

(This post has been updated Nov. 2018)

This recipe has a special place in my heart because it’s the first recipe I ever had published.  I had no idea that these Breakfast Berry Monkey Bread Cups would be the jumping off point for my journey into food blogging!

If you checked out my bio, you know that I’ve loved cooking, baking, and entertaining for a long time. When I created my Instagram account, long before my blog, it was simply to showcase my cooking experiments and food photography practice.

As I continued to post my creations, people began to ask for the recipes, and before long, I knew that developing a blog was inevitable.

Between my other career pursuits, I found pockets of time throughout the day to become familiar with all of the elements that come along with starting a food blog from scratch.

I’m still frequently overwhelmed by all of the “tech stuff” I have to learn. At the moment, it seems like I have a massive mountain to climb and I’m standing at the bottom with a fork and a map in another language.

Nevertheless, I’m positive I’ll figure it out along the way. All I can say is, thank God for YouTube tutorials.

OK, so now that you know a bit of my back story, let’s get to the important matter at hand – the berry monkey bread cups!

So what is “Monkey Bread?”

The dish “Monkey Bread” is made with sweet pieces of dough that are layered in a pan and drowned in a decadent sauce of butter and sugar. As it bakes, the sugar cooks, coating the soft dough balls in an ooey-gooey golden caramel.

My take is just a little different.

First off, they’re mini! (See what I did there?)

I layer the dough and berries in individual muffin cups for a cute presentation. It’s also a great variation for kids/company. Second, rather than drizzling a heavy sauce over the dough, I roll the pieces in melted butter and then a cinnamon sugar mixture. It creates a crunchier and much less sweet monkey bread. As the berries cook, they inevitably release some juice, which creates a little sauce anyway.

Of course, you could always drizzle some maple syrup over the top if you like extra sweetness.

Lastly, be sure to place the muffin tins on baking sheets as the juice from the berries does bubble over. You definitely don’t want a sugary mess at the bottom of your oven!

Monkey Bread with Biscuit Dough!

This recipe calls for using store bought biscuit dough. It’s a huge time saver and makes the recipe much simpler. The scariest part, really, is waiting for that “pop!” of the biscuit can. (Am I the only one that still jumps when that happens?)

All you have to do, is cut the raw biscuit dough into small pieces, dip them into some vanilla infused butter, roll them in a sweet cinnamon sugar mixture, layer them with berries, and bake them off! Can you say, yum?!

Berry Monkey Bread!

After preparing the biscuit dough pieces, layer the pieces alternately with pieces of fresh fruit into muffin cups. (I use silicone muffin pans because these berry monkey bread cups can get sticky.) I start with a few pieces of dough, then some fruit, a few more pieces of dough, and then I top the cups with just a little more fruit.

Place the muffin pans on a baking sheet to catch any spillover, and bake them until they’re cooked and golden brown. Once they’ve cooled slightly, remove them from their baking tins, scoop up any berry syrup underneath, and drizzle it over top.

Then, pour some coffee and smile because your morning is about to get pretty darn delicious.

Enjoy!

Did you make this?? Please let me know in the comments below or tag me on social media #howtolovecooking! I’d love to know how it went for you!

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Breakfast Berry Monkey Bread Cups

A delightful "mini" take on the classic Monkey Bread, these Berry Monkey Bread Cups are sweet, slightly toasty, and loaded with fresh berries.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Author Cathy

Ingredients

• 1 Can of 8 Jumbo buttermilk biscuits
• ½ C. Chopped Strawberries
• ½ C. Blueberries
• 4 TBS (1/2 stick) Unsalted butter Melted
• ½ tsp. Vanilla

Cinnamon Sugar Mixture

• ½ C. Granulated sugar
• 2 TBS Brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. Nutmeg
• 1 Pinch Salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

2. Chop each biscuit into 8 pieces, and place them into a bowl.

3. In another bowl, add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, and mix until evenly combined.

4. Add the vanilla to your melted butter, and pour the butter over the chopped biscuit pieces. Toss gently to coat each piece. (Don’t be afraid to get your hands messy. The dough will stick together a little - just pull them apart.)

5. Take a few pieces of biscuit at a time, and toss them in the sugar and spice mixture to coat.

6. Build the monkey bread cups by layering the sugar-coated biscuit pieces and berries until you almost reach the top of the muffin rim. I start by layering 3-4 pieces of biscuit, a sprinkle of berries, a few more pieces of biscuit, and finish them with a few more berries. (Only fill the muffin cups to the rim or else they may overflow. Remember - they puff up!)

7. Continue filling the other cups until you have used all your biscuit pieces and berries. This recipe fills about 8 muffin cups.

8. Put the muffin pans on a large baking sheets, and bake them at 375 degrees for 25 mins or until the biscuits are puffed, cooked, and just golden brown. Remove from oven, and let cool.

9. When you remove them from the muffin pan, you may find some thick berry syrup under the monkey bread cups. I like to spoon it right over the top for some extra berry goodness.

10. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

*Special note: I used silicone muffin pans for this recipe. Due to the stickiness/juiciness of the final result, these make removal from the pan and clean up a breeze. If you're not using silicone pans, be sure to butter the muffin cups before you fill them. I also placed my muffin pans on top of larger baking pans to catch any fruit juice that might bubble over.