Baking for a Cause - Monkey Bread!

So in an effort to be a good person, who gives back to the community, I frequently volunteer (when I can and when I'm at home) with my parents' Lions Club. Truth be told, I'm actually a member, and one of the youngest at that. Twice a year, the Lions have a breakfast and bake sale for the community to raise funds for scholarships for local seniors. For the past few years, I have been put in charge of the bake sale, mainly because no one else wants to run it and also because I'm the only one who's been able to make a significant profit. I enjoy it though - mainly because my mom and I bake up a storm the day before and I get to give back by doing what I love, engaging my inner-Betty Crocker.

The next breakfast is in two weeks and once again I'll be reprising my role as bake sale leader. I try to come up with new items to bake. In November, I made mini cheesecakes and they flew off the racks. Some of the staples that tend to sell really well include: Tandy cake (peanut butter/chocolate/vanilla cake), blueberry cake, apple turnovers (I make them every year), apple pie, and cookies. With a couple weeks to go, I'm making my list of items to bake this year, which includes: mini strawberry cheesecakes, peanut butter cookies, apple pie, AND mini monkey bread muffins!

I tested the mini monkey bread muffins last night and thought I'd share the recipe with you all - it's incredibly simple, and incredibly delicious. I riffed off a recipe I found at Pinch of Yum. I had to get rid of some rapidly aging bananas and this recipe included them in the monkey bread. So here's how you do it:

Ingredients: 
1 package of Pillsbury Grands Biscuits 
1/2 cup of Splenda or other sugar substitute (my attempt to make these healthy)
1 teaspoon (or more if desired) of cinnamon
1-2 bananas (if you desire)
1/2 of butter for topping (optional)
2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar (optional)

Directions:
Break the biscuits up into clumps of varying sizes - I got between four and six pieces out of each biscuit. Although the recipe I found suggests putting the sugar/cinnamon in a ziplock back and adding the dough to coat, I found this to actually not work very well. So, I'd suggest putting the cinnamon/sugar in a bowl and rolling the pieces, a few at a time, in the mixture. Coat a muffin pan with nonstick spray and add in the pieces of dough. If you want to add banana, just cut up into piece and coat with the sugar/cinnamon mixture and add with the dough. Pop them in the oven for twenty minutes at 350 degrees and there you have it.

I think you can probably get between nine and eleven mini monkey bread muffins out of eight biscuits, which is between 150 and 124 calories a muffin- the average monkey bread made with real sugar is about 400 calories a serving. If you want, you can melt butter (or in my case Smart Balance) and brown sugar (my case Splenda Brown sugar) and add to the top of each muffin, before baking, for a more gooey texture. This will add a few calories of course.

I think these taste pretty good - If you use real sugar, they might be a little gooey-er, but of course more calories - your choice! I only allowed myself to eat two - one with bananas, one without and froze the rest - I think they'll be a nice treat one morning after a quick spin in the microwave.

I think I may just have to add these to the bake sale table after all! I think I could get $2 a piece out of each one!

Enjoy!

A Pineapple in China

Duck Head. Yes, that's a bill, feet are below

After only living in Connecticut for three weeks, I managed to have a pretty packed weekend. Some of the highlights include seeing Act of Valor Friday night, which I would definitely recommend people see. While the acting isn't "Oscar" worthy (I mean c'mon, the guys are real soldiers), you definitely leave feeling pretty good about being an American. It also helped that the entire audience applauded after the movie ended.

My best friend Lindsay came up for the weekend on Saturday and we had a really good time doing girly things: lunch out, manicures, etc. We spent the evening out with some of the other folks I've met along the way. We spent the majority of our time at Molly Darcy's. Not a bad place, but I certainly realized, "I'm not in Philly anymore!" On Sunday we had lunch at a coworker's house. He and his wife prepared traditional Chinese food. It was eerily reminiscent of my trip two years ago. I loved the Beijing noodles, but politely passed on the duck head, and chicken and duck feet.

My co-worker, who is from China, loves pineapple, but he had never had pineapple upside down cake. Although this is my father's favorite cake and my mother has always made it for him, every year, I never did it myself. So, here is a little photo story of my first-ever, and yes successful, pineapple upside down cake:

I don't usually use boxed mix, but I like that Duncan Hines has a specific "pineapple" mix for this sort of cake. In addition, I try to find ways to make the mix healthier. For instance, I substitute apple sauce for vegetable oil and I use egg whites or egg beaters in replace of real eggs.

I had to make the glaze first - Again, here I substituted Smart Balance butter, for real butter or margarine. I also used the Splenda Brown Sugar mix - Be careful. The recipe calls for a cup of brown sugar, and I almost made the mistake of assuming Splenda Brown Sugar measures cup for cup like brown sugar - it does not!

 

 Did my best to make a pretty design...I was nervous about the Splenda Brown Sugar at this point because the glaze was lighter than I remember it being when my mother uses regular brown sugar - but all was well.

It took about an hour to bake and smelled really delicious. A this point I was nervous, because you have to flip the cake right after you take it out of the oven . . . 

 Success! Flipping of the cake worked! AND the cake was really quite good, if I may say so myself. The entire lunch party really enjoyed it and the best part was, it was less guilt-free than usual!

And now, at 25 years old, I can say I have baked a successful pineapple upside down cake! Enjoy.