Pineapple Monkey Bread

6.8.16

Even as a grown up, I still learn things about myself, and I like that one of the ways I do that is through baking.  What is something I’ve really solidified in knowing about myself? I am stubborn as a mother$%#$er. [Cut to a shot of my mother saying, DUH!]  If I get something wrong, I will redo it , or try again until it’s right, to make it what I want.  It’s like a game, or competition, with myself. And I must win.  I’m sure being an oldest sibling is a part of it, and a therapist would have a lot of opinions about that, but we’ll just deal with it here by making a monkey bread cake involving some pineapple and coconut glaze.

So the first time I made this, I was unhappy with it.  Basically I drowned it in caramel sauce, and it was cloyingly sweet, unable to fully bake in the bottom of the pan because it was so oversaturated.  So I made it again!  And it was tasty, and much better and not totally covered in caramel sauce. I am glad it worked out, because there are projects I haven’t posted because I’ve done them so many times to no avail. They still come out far from perfect, so they remain in a tiny folder on my computer, floating in cyberspace failure. I’ll eventually revisit them, but I can only buy grapefruits so many times for a project that yet again doesn’t work before I start boycotting all citrus forever.

So this successful monkey bread cake with a layer of pineapple, drizzled with coconut cream glaze, is a great summer dessert.  It’s tropical, and the best thing about it is even though I am a psycho about making everything from scratch, you can EASILY make this dessert with some premade ingredients and then the time to make this shoots down to nothing!

For the Caramel Sauce (should you want to make it)

For the Monkey Bread

For the Coconut Cream Glaze

Oh is there no picture? It’s because I forgot.  And then promptly spilled the coconut cream all over my counter right after I mixed the glaze.

Like I said, you do not have to make biscuits for this, seriously, go out and buy some Grands biscuits.  But if you doooooo want to make your own biscuits, here’s my recipe.  Just omit the cheddar and jalapeño. And no one is judging you if you want to buy caramel sauce instead of making it, for time purposes.  But if you’ve got some extra minutes, I highly recommend making your sauce because once you learn how, it’s hard to go back to ever buying it again.

The picture above is of the first attempt, where I mixed the pineapple and biscuits together.  Also didn’t love that result, but I wanted to show the rolling of the biscuits, so I kept this picture to demonstrate.

This cake is great to pull apart, but because of the pineapple, I recommend slicing it up so everyone gets every aspect of tropical flavor. 

Using coconut cream instead of milk in this glaze was the right risk to take. If you don’t spill it after you use it, like me, take the rest and blend yourself up some pina coladas.

Right out of the oven is the way this guy tastes best, but if you have to wait to serve it, keep it safe in an airtight container overnight. Now someone get me a pina colada.  Just kidding, get me gin.

Pineapple Monkey Bread

Ingredients

For the Caramel Sauce

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp course salt
• Splash of vanilla extract

For the Bread

• 12-15 biscuits cut into quarters
• 2 cups pineapple, chopped
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus extra for rolling
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• zest from 1 orange
• 2 Tbsp of coconut rum
• 1/2 cup caramel sauce

For the Coconut Glaze

• 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
• 2 Tbsp coconut cream

Instructions

For the Caramel Sauce

• Cut up butter for easier melting, and place in a medium saucepan over medium heat
• Once butter is melted, add in the rest of ingredients and whisk together until it becomes smooth
• Bring to a boil and keep on stove for about 3 minutes. Then remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before storing, it will thicken as it cools.
• This can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge

For the Bread

• Preheat oven to 350 and spray and flour bundt pan
• In a medium bowl, mix together the pineapple, sugars, rum and zest with a spatula and allow to marinate while you cut and roll biscuits
• Fill a small bowl with white sugar and one by one roll the quarters of half the biscuits in sugar, then place in pan
• Strain pineapple mixture and spread evenly over bottom layer of biscuits
• Take second half of cut biscuits and repeat same as first layer
• Take caramel sauce and drizzle over cake, allowing it to find its way through the biscuit pieces and pineapple
• Bake for 35-40 minutes, the bottom will begin to brown
• Once slightly cooled, carefully flip onto wire rack over wax paper to cool

For the Glaze

• Mix ingredients together, if glaze is too thin add more sugar, if too thick to pour, add more cream
• Slowly pour onto cake, allowing it to fall down the sides
• Pick apart with hands or slice to enjoy

P.S.

*If you want a bigger dessert, I’d recommend upping the biscuits to about 20-30, depending on how dense or big you want it