Mini Monkey Muffins

First of all, this post is in large part thanks to Nikki, who told me about Ree Drummond's cooking blog http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/. The recipes here are ones that are based on hers. If you like eating really fattening food and beautiful photography check her blog out. Also, she's really funny, homeschools her kids and lives on a working ranch, so those of you who know me, know that this appeals to me on so many levels!

On to the recipe. My family was in need of a pick-me-up last week, so I decided to look for a comfort food recipe that was fun and the kids could help me make. My mom had made monkey bread a few times when I was a kid, and it was exactly the right thing for a Friday that ended a week of frustrations. We made a large batch that looked like this after it came out of the oven:
And it looked like this about 5 minutes later:

We have had a much better week this week, but I still had one tube of biscuits left over. So this morning I decided to make mini monkey muffins! Here's the scoop.

You'll need 1 tube of biscuits, each cut into 6 wedges and placed in a zip-loc baggie along with 2 t. cinnamon and 1/4 c. sugar. (No dishes to wash--perfect!)

Seal and let your oh-so-excited child shake the bag.

It will look like this, with all of the biscuit bits perfectly encrusted with beautiful little cinnamon sugar crystals.

Place the little biscuit bites in the muffin tin, 4 to a muffin round. Then melt 1/3 c. butter with a few shakes of brown sugar in the microwave and pour a little over each of the 12 lovely cups of goodness. Because everything's better with butter.Bake at 350 degrees for between 15 and 18 minutes (our oven runs cool, so I'm never quite sure how it compares with others).

They come out gooey and sweet with a slightly salty dough. Absolutely perfect with coffee or milk. Here are the responses:

Matthew, AKA The Shirtless Wonder, all fingers and thumbs up

Soren, AKA Super Dad, two thumbs upAnnika, AKA Mama's Little Helper, big smile and thumbs up

I liked the large loaf presentation better than the mini-monkey-muffins because I enjoy picking one bite off and then another, and another and another (you get the picture). Also, I cut the biscuits into only 4 pieces with the larger loaf. The larger loaf seems to work best with the sauce, too; it just seemed gooier. But as a mom, it was nice to give each child one muffin and leave it at that, so nobody completely lost control and gave him or herself a stomach ache. Portion control.

Mysteriously, though, when I returned home after spending the morning out, ALL of the mini-monkey-muffins had disappeared!