Monkey Bread gone wild

This month's craft party gathering was deemed a brunch, so I bypassed my usual cookies and cakes and went with monkey breads. I'd never seen monkey bread that wasn't the standard sugar and cinnamon yummy goodness that I grew up with until the shower I cohosted earlier in the month, when one of our coworkers brought Bacon Monkey Bread.

(Note: In a tired moment last week, I referred to it as bacon banana bread. Think about that for a minute. Now gag. And continue.)

I thought it would be perfect for craft party brunch. I made a lot of adjustments to this recipe, and it turned out pretty well. Personally, I'm a fan of my arteries, so I cut the butter way back. I didn't feel like battling onion breath all day, so I skipped those. The bread tasted great, though!


Ingredients:
3 cans refrigerated biscuits (I used four, as they came in a pack of four)
1/2 lb. fried bacon (I think I used 12 slices but didn't measure out how many pounds that was)
3/4 c. chopped bell peppers
3/4 c. chopped onions (I omitted these)
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese (I used 1/4 cup)
1 1/2 sticks butter (I used about 5 tablespoons)

Directions:
Cook peppers (and onions) in butter. Cut biscuits into quarters. Crumble bacon into cheese. Toss biscuits with bacon and cheese. Layer dough in a well-greased bundt pan.

After layering 1 can of biscuits, spread 1/3 of the pepper and onion mixture. Drizzle about 1/4 cup of butter over dough. (I did not add butter in each layer and instead poured it over everything at the very end - it tends to seep down, through and around the biscuits.) Continue the layers. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Note: I think you could also add some shredded cheese to this recipe for a cheesy, bacon-y breakfast bread.

I also realized that not everyone eats meat, so I wanted to make a sweeter, meatless monkey bread ... I searched through some recipes and found one that I adapted to make Raspberry Monkey Bread. I honestly didn't think it would work, though, so I kinda didn't measure anything exactly.

Ingredients:
4 cans refrigerated biscuits
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4-1 cup raspberry preserves

Directions:
Cut biscuits into quarters. Combine butter, honey, sugar and raspberry preserves. Toss biscuit quarters with mixture to fully coat them. Bake in a well-greased bundt pan at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.


The recipe I adapted mine from also suggested using 1/2 of nuts.

For many, many more monkey bread recipes, check out this site.

Sources: cooks.com (for Bacon Monkey Bread) and recipegoldmine.com (for Raspberry Monkey Bread I based mine on)