Cinnamon Monkey Bread Muffins with pizza dough

Okay, stay tuned for my story of how this blog post went wrong.  I had a rough draft of this recipe and some how it got posted on August 13th...not sure exactly how because I don't really remember doing it but it went up without pictures or any of the information that I thought that I wrote in my draft... went searching to see if there was anything else with what I thought that I wrote and I couldn't find it...  I think that I might be loosing a little sanity but here is the actual recipe that I made (and perfected over multiple experiments).  Sorry if you read this post the first time but I took it down and fixed the original so that I wasn't confused again later.  I guess doing too many things at once is too much for my sad mommy brain!!

One night, I had some extra pizza dough after we had dinner and I was going to make fried dough or cinnasticks for dessert but then I saw this recipe.  I changed my mind and made these Cinnamon Monkey Bread Muffins.  I figured that it was worth a try and the oven was already warm from the pizza.  I got out all the ingredients but decided that I was only going to make 6 since I wasn't sure how the pizza dough was going to turn out.

Then, I mixed the cinnamon and brown sugar together in a bowl.

I melted the butter and mixed in the corn syrup.

The original recipe called for Pillsbury Dough dinner rolls which was not something I had but I decided that I would make it with the pizza dough and see how they turned out.  On the first batch of six muffins, I followed the recipe and directions exactly.  

I rolled the dough in the butter mixture.

Then, I put them into the cinnamon mixture.

Rolled them around until they were covered.

Then, I put them four or five balls into a greased muffin pan.

I put them into the oven to cook per the recipe until they were nice and brown.  They rose a lot and got a little on to the muffin pan.

I took out the first muffin before it had time to cool so it fell apart on my plate.  Try to fight the urge but it was really yummy smelling so hard to fight the urge to get it into my mouth.  YUM!

The finished muffin cooled and was ready to test.  It was light and fluffy as you can see from the piece that I bit through.

They were a little dry since we are not normally an icing family (except my son who would eat it off a spoon).  I tried it with a little pumpkin cream cheese frosting but it just wasn't hitting the spot.

 So I changed up the recipe a little.  I added white sugar to the cinnamon mixture and then dribbled a little more butter and cinnamon mixture over the top when they get into the muffin tins.  They were yummier.  

The next morning, I made them again but decided not to use corn syrup and the brown sugar and just dip the dough into butter and cover with cinnamon and sugar.  I dribbled the extra butter on to the top and shook a little cinnamon and sugar mixture on top before baking.  This made the muffins a little more like sticky buns which was exactly what I was looking for.  There was a gooey cinnamon mixture to dip the pieces in.  

They are good warm out of the oven or even cold later that day (our didn't make it too much farther).  I did have two that made it past breakfast.  One got heated in the microwave upside down so the goo got a chance to drip through the muffin again and the other one got eaten cold.  They were all fabulous!

I made them for my mom when she came to visit and she was super excited and said that it was way better then using the store bought dough!  I agree and it was just as easy.  Sadly, now every week when I make the pizza dough (recipe makes two crusts), I use the extra dough to make these yummy muffins!!

Final recipe listed below:

Cinnamon Monkey Bread Muffins

Pizza Dough (whole pizza crust probably makes 18 muffins)
2-3 tablespoons butter (or margarine) per 6 muffins
Cinnamon and Sugar mixture (done to your taste but we like a lot of cinnamon)

Instructions:

Preheat your over to 350 degrees

Start by combining your cinnamon and sugar in a medium bowl (or a shaker which is how we do it in our house).

Then, melt the butter in a small bowl or measuring cup. 

Heavily grease the muffin cups of a standard muffin tray.

Next, roll your dough into balls. Put into butter and roll around.  Remove and put into cinnamon sugar mixture.  Roll around until completely covered.

Once evenly coated, drop four to five sugared dough balls into each muffin cup (depends on how big you made them).  Don't fill up muffin tin because they are going to rise a lot.  Top with leftover butter and sprinkle on a little of the cinnamon and sugar.

Bake at 350* for 20 minutes.  Let cool for a few minutes before eating.

Shared at Homemade Mondays and Church Supper