For the love of Paula Deen, baked goods and Philly cream cheese, I broke down and did it: I entered the “Real Women of Philadelphia” dessert-making challenge. It took me a while to come up with a treat I deemed worthy of the Queen of Butter and All Things Batter-dipped, Fried and Sugared, but here’s my submission:
You don’t need to attend the finest pastry schools or import fancy-pants ingredients from exotic locales to create a dish that’ll be the envy of every potluck, bake sale and social event. With the help of Philadelphia cream cheese and some blueberries, I created a refreshing twist on the classic cinnamon sugar monkey bread. It looks — and tastes — like you’ve spent hours in the kitchen, but take it from me: If I can throw it together in my (or rather my boyfriend’s) cupboard-sized kitchen in less than hour, you can do it too!
You can see the video here.
Utensils required: three small bowls (one must be microwave-safe), tablespoon, whisk (or electric mixer), oven mitts, plastic resealable bag, measuring cup, knife (if cutting biscuits yourself), oven
Ingredients (serves 12-14):
- 1 1/4 cup(s) of sugar
- 1 cup(s) of blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used thawed frozen berries because they were on sale!)
- 2 tubes refrigerated croissant or biscuit dough (I like butter, so I opted for croissants this time)
- 1 package (8 ounces) Philadelphia cream cheese
- 4 tbsp. of blueberry jam (blackberry works too!)
- 2 tbsp. of cinnamon
- 1 cup(s) of brown sugar
- 1 stick of butter
Time commitment: 20-25 minutes to prepare, 25-30 to cook
Steps:
- First, mix 1/4 cup of sugar with 1 cup of blueberries.
- Set the berries aside to sweeten, and separate the biscuits. (If you used croissant dough like me, just cut each tube of dough into 10-12 slices.)
- Take a plastic resealable bag, pour in a cup of white sugar and two tablespoons of cinnamon, mixing them together.
- Pop in a couple pieces of dough, seal the bag, and shake
- Now, take a rolling pin — or, if you
- Grab a bowl and stir together the jam and Philadelphia cream cheese. You may need a whisk to thoroughly blend the two.
- Dab a teaspoon of the Philly filling in the center of each flattened dough coin, then top with 4-6 blueberries.
- Curl up the sides of the dough and pinch all the edges together, forming a little purse-like dough ball.
- Place each dough “purse” into a greased bundt pan, layering them closely together.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- In a third bowl, combine the brown sugar and butter. Place it in the microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat this process until the mixture resembles caramel sauce. Mmmm!
- Drizzle the sauce all over the monkey bread. Be careful not to drool on it.
- Pop it in the oven for 25-30 minutes. It should look bubbly and golden brown when it’s done, but let it cool for 10 minutes or so before flipping the bread out of the pan and digging in.