Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Stuffed Monkey Bread
Guys, this is a good one. It’s a long title, but I just felt like you needed to know the extent of what’s happening here like, immediately.
So, wanna hear a super cool story? One of my co-workers at my day job, Chaz, always talks about this awesome pizza place he grew up with called Dion’s, and how they just recently started opening them up in Colorado. Like seriously, Chaz loves this place. So when Dion’s reached out to me about this post, I was sitting there thinking, “Dion’s… Dion’s… where do I know that name?”
The point of the story is that I’m so excited to be partnering with this awesome restaurant for my post today, and I hope you guys love it! Thanks for listening.
My husband and I went over to Dion’s last night for dinner, my first time at the restaurant. We ordered the Duke City pizza, from a recommendation of my friend Chaz, and it didn’t disappoint! It’s really unique, with green chili’s so it’s got a good kick to it.
When we headed out, we grabbed a few dough balls to take home for this dessert recipe. Their dough is made fresh every morning, so it’s really great to work with, especially compared to some grocery store options out there. I’m a from-scratch baker for a lot of recipes, but in my everyday life, I LOVE shortcuts. With such a great quality dough, it’s super easy to bake with.
Alright, on to the monkey bread. You guys, please, you must try this recipe! It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. Seriously, EVER. Listen, you can make monkey bread that’s not stuffed. You can, but don’t, because this version is worth every single extra step.
I hope you guys enjoy this as much as we did, and if you have a Dion’s in your city, give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed!
This post was sponsored by Dion’s.
Ingredients
- 40 oz of fresh pizza or bread dough (about one and a half large dough balls from Dion's)
- 1 8oz pkg of cream cheese
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup melted and cooled butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbs. cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 10-cup bundt pan with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, beat together the cream cheese, first 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 tsp. vanilla. Set aside.
- Place your melted butter in another small bowl. In a third small bowl, mix together the 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
- Pull off small pieces of dough, about the size of a golf ball. Stretch the dough into a flat circle. Spoon a small amount of the cream cheese mixture in the middle, along with two chocolate chips.
- Stretch the dough around the filling back into a circle shape, and pinch to seal.
- Dip the ball into the melted butter, and then roll in the cinnamon-sugar mix. Place in your bundt pan.
- Continue until you have one layer of filled dough balls in the pan. Then sprinkle on half of the chopped hazelnuts.
- Finish filling and rolling the rest of the dough balls, until the pan is 3/4 full.
- In a small saucepan, melt the second 1/2 cup of butter, then whisk in the brown sugar, vanilla, and salt until combined.
- Pour the sauce over your dough in the bundt pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, or until set, and the top is golden. If the top starts to get too dark, cover with foil while you continue to bake.
- Cool for 10-15 minutes, and then turn out onto a plate, and enjoy warm!
Double Blueberry Loaf Cake
Let’s talk about blueberries, and pie fillings, and cake, and putting it all together!
I’m not a huge fan of blueberries on their own, but when baked into something, they are truly amazing. We all know and love the classic blueberry muffin, and this is a variation on that! Loaf cakes are just so easy- you can just slice them as your family eats it, and this is a simple single loaf recipe. I don’t know about you, but when I look at a recipe that yields like 3 loaves or 75 cupcakes, I just can’t deal. God knows we don’t need that much in one household.
Honestly, if you can make a loaf instead of muffins, it’s just easier. It takes longer to bake, but you don’t have to do all the scooping and batch baking. Sometimes you just don’t feel like it- I get that. This is a low-maintenance recipe overall, very few dishes involved.
I used a homemade blueberry pie filling, but you can use canned just the same. I made a birthday cake earlier in the week that was topped with blueberry sauce, so I thought I’d use up some of the leftovers. Use the extras to top off some pancakes this weekend!
Homemade pie filling is super simple- just cook your blueberries with some sugar until boiling, and stir in a cornstarch slurry to thicken it up! It’s perfect in a pie, and on pancakes or waffles. Store it in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and enjoy.
This recipe uses fresh blueberries along with the pie filling, which gives you a really beautiful texture and flavor throughout the cake. I sprinkled some coarse sugar on top for a little extra crunch, but the cake is totally fantastic even without that.
So. No liners, no scooping, one single bake. Just slice and enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup self-rising flour
- 1/4 all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tbs. heavy cream
- 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
- 2 tsp. all purpose flour
- 3-4 tbs. blueberry pie filling
- 2 tbs. coarse sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease a loaf pan.
- Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs and sour cream and beat until combined.
- Add in the self-rising flour, all purpose flour, and salt. Mix until combined- it will be thick.
- Beat in the heavy cream.
- Toss your fresh blueberries with the 2 tsps. of flour until coated, and then fold into the batter.
- Spread about half the batter into your pan. Then take 1-2 tbs. of the blueberry pie filling and swirl it into your batter.
- Spread the remaining batter over the top, and drop the remaining pie filling, and swirl.
- Sprinkle the top with sugar.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool completely before removing the pan
- Enjoy!
Perfect Poppy Seed Muffins
Happy Sunday everyone!
Today we’re making the perfect almond poppy seed muffins. It’s Sunday, and it’s fall, and it’s a great time for a great muffin.
Almond poppy seed muffins have been a favorite of mine for a long time. I honestly think it’s mainly the almond flavor that does it for me, but I love them. Getting a great homemade recipe was one of my first stops as a baker.
Before we even get into it, let’s all just come back down to reality about muffins. We know they’re just cupcakes. I mean, okay there’s some significant differences in how they are made, but all in all, a great muffin tastes like a great cupcake without the frosting. Plus, it’s completely acceptable to eat these in the morning hours.
I mean, as long as we are being real here, I’ve been known to eat a wide variety of desserts in the morning hours. Whatever, this isn’t about me.
This is a basic muffin recipe with the addition of almond extract and lots of those sweet little poppy seeds. Unlike cupcakes, which are often made with softened butter, muffins typically use melted butter or oil, and more flour and baking powder to create a slightly more dense, flavorful muffin. This is also what creates that crispy brown top that we all love.
Muffins are super easy to whip up, and it’s honestly a perfect morning treat with your coffee. Hope you enjoy this recipe!
Almond Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup butter melted and cooled
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp. almond extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tbs. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 tbs. poppy seeds
- 3 tbs turbinado sugar
Instructions
-
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, and line a 12 cup muffin tin.
-
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, butter, sour cream, and almond extract.
-
Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Fold in the poppy seeds.
-
Scoop the batter evenly into a 12 cup muffin tin. The cups should be 3/4 full, and the batter should only be enough for 12, so fill them up!
-
Sprinkle some turbinado sugar on top of the batter.
-
Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown, and a tooth pick comes out clean.
Easy Chocolate Cinnamon Buns
Want to make chocolate cinnamon rolls the easy way? Me too.
I cheated on this one, and if you live in a high altitude area, you already know how annoying it can be to work with yeast breads from scratch. This can be particularly unfortunate when you love fluffy carbs as much as I do.
And let’s just face it- when the cinnamon roll craving happens, it’s unstoppable.
I’ve seen a lot of recipes lately where folks flatten out canned biscuits and make something fantastic out of it, so I figured why not do the same thing with frozen yeast rolls? After all, a cinnamon roll is traditionally made with a yeast bread dough anyways.
This is the easiest way to get that classic cinnamon roll flavor and texture that we all love. You can buy frozen yeast dinner rolls in the freezer section of your grocery store, and you’ve got your cinnamon roll dough already prepared! Just let the dough thaw and rise slightly, and you’re ready to roll, fill and bake.
Easy Chocolate Cinnamon Buns
Ingredients
- 12 frozen yeast rolls
- 1/4 cup softened butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
-
Place the frozen yeast rolls on a pan and cover with plastic wrap. Let them thaw and rise slightly for about one and a half hours. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon, set aside
-
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a bit of flour to prevent sticking, press and stretch out your rolls until about 2-3 inches wide.
-
Spread just enough softened butter on each flattened roll to coat. Then sprinkle on an even coating of the cinnamon-sugar mix, and then divide chocolate chips evenly on all rolls.
-
Roll each bun into a cylinder and cut in half.
-
Place 2-3 halves into each cup of a greased muffin tin.
-
Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden. If wanted, drizzle with the icing of your choice, serve warm.
Berry Pound Cakes
A lot of people think that pound cake was named as such because each slice is very heavy, like a pound. However, the name actually comes from the traditional use of one pound each of 4 ingredients.
We’ve come a long way- now we use what is probably more than a pound of many more than 4 ingredients!
Ha- so needless to say, this stuff isn’t healthy. Visiting the blog as a whole if you’re interested in healthy dishes is probably a mistake though, and pound cake is great, so I don’t care.
The basic idea of pound cake today is simply to have a very dense and buttery cake, and then you can really do anything you want to it. My recipe uses buttermilk for a great depth of flavor, and it bakes up perfectly dense with a slightly crunchy top and crust- almost like a bruleed top.
I made this recipe in several small loaf pans, but it’s about enough to get two full size loaf pans, or one bundt- baking times will vary, but you can always do the toothpick test. I also used frozen berries, which is totally optional. I was able to find a bag of mixed berries, and then I didn’t have to do anything to them- just threw some into the mix, super easy.
Enjoy!
Berry Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup softened butter
- 3 cups sugar
- 6 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 cup mixed berries fresh or frozen
Instructions
-
Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt- set aside.
-
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add in the vanilla.
-
Add in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
-
Add the flour alternating with the buttermilk starting and ending with the flour.
-
Stir in your berries until just incorporated- if you over-mix, the color of the batter will change.
-
Bake at 325 degrees- for small loafs 20-25 minutes, for large loafs 45-50 minutes, bundt pan will take just over an hour roughly.
