Recipe Review: Paula Deen’s Gorilla Bread

My husband saw this recipe this past weekend, and he insisted on making it.  His mom usually makes monkey bread for Christmas morning, and it is a serious favorite.  Gorilla bread is apparently  monkey bread on steroids…meaning the sweet biscuit bites are filled with cream cheese and cinnamon sugar.

I’m gonna go ahead and tell you that it is a 5 out of 5, a 10 out of 10, and 100%!  I was going to take off points for the high calorie content, but these little nuggets of deliciousness are just too good.  And I just can’t make myself care because they are that good.  AND they were good 2 days later.  I made it again tonight, experimenting with the amount of butter.

Paula’s recipe calls for one whole stick of butter.  I used a half stick of butter, melted it in the pan with the brown sugar like the recipe calls for, and added some water.  You pour this delicious goodness on the bottom of the bundt pan and between every layer of biscuits, so it worked out well with the water instead of the extra butter.  It made more of a candy coating on the gorilla bread instead of a more…buttery/greasy coating.

Here’s Paula’s recipe for Gorilla Bread posted on Food Network’s site:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
• 2 (12-ounce) cans refrigerated biscuits (10 count)
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon. In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar over low heat, stirring well; set aside. Cut the cream cheese into 20 equal cubes. Press the biscuits out with your fingers and sprinkle each with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar. Place a cube of cream cheese in the center of each biscuit, wrapping and sealing the dough around the cream cheese. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bottom of the bundt pan. Place half of the prepared biscuits in the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, pour half of the melted butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle on 1/2 cup of nuts. Layer the remaining biscuits on top, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, pour the remaining butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Place a plate on top and invert.