Amy's Monkey Bread

My friend, Amy Routt, made this for us one year when we spent New Year's with them in Arkansas. They are to die for! If you don't want them TOO sweet and gooey, you can decrease all the 3/4's to 1/2 but keep the number of biscuits the same. Everyone loves this monkey bread at my house on Christmas morning. Make sure it all gets eaten 'cause it doesn't keep well for leftovers.

2 cans of Jumbo sized biscuits

3/4 C. vanilla ice-cream, melted
OR
3/4 C. liquid coffee creamer...I like vanilla caramel or french vanilla

3/4 C. melted butter
3/4 C. sugar
3/4 C. brown sugar

Cut each biscuit into fourths and put all biscuits, uncooked, into large plastic ziploc bag with cinnamon sugar mixture. Shake bag to coat biscuits with cinnamon sugar and then dump all the biscuits in a greased 9x13 pan.

Melt butter and ice-cream in saucepan. (If using creamer in place of ice-cream, just melt butter alone).
Add sugars and creamer, if using, and heat and stir until all sugar is dissolved.
Pour over biscuits.

The instructions say to bake at 400 degrees for 15 min. I don't know if it's my oven or what...this does not work for me. At only 15 min. the biscuits in the middle of the pan are still doughy. Then I cook it longer and the biscuits on the outside edges get too done. I've tried cooking longer but at a lower temp. and this seems to work out better. You guys are just going to have to guess at it and keep a close watch.

Scotch Eggs

Last year our dear friends the Liwai's gave us some of these really delicious Scotch Eggs at Christmas time. This year these same dear friends will not be here for Christmas so we've decided to try our hand at making them. Now, Dottie gave me the recipe but of course I've misplaced it so I looked it up online. This is what I found:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb	Bulk pork sausage
12	Eggs, hard-cooked, peeled
1	Egg, beaten
1/2 c	Dry bread crumbs

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Instructions:
Heat oven to 450 degrees.
Divide sausage into 12 equal portions.
Shape into patties.
Wrap each patty completely around 1 hard- cooked egg.
Press edges to seal.
Dip sausage wrapped eggs in beaten egg;roll in bread crumbs until coated.
Place on a broiler pan (so the grease can run off).
Bake @ 450 degrees 30 minutes,until meat is browned and cooked.

FYI: many of the recipes that I found said that these were to be fried. I'm pretty sure the ones Dottie made were baked so I went with this one that is baked. Will let you know how it goes.

Update:
I found the recipe from Dottie. Here it is:

5 large boiled eggs
1 tube bulk sausage
1 large egg beaten
plain cracker crumbs

Peeled COOLED hard boiled eggs.
Cut sausage into 5 equal slices. Use 2 pieces of wax paper to flatten sausage pieces. Mold sausage around each egg.
Dip sausage covered eggs in beaten egg (and a bit of milk) and roll in crumbs.
Place eggs on a rack placed on a baking dish so the sausage grease will drip through.
Bake for 1 hour at 350*. Cool for 30 minutes.
Cut lengthwise into quarters. Sprinkle centers with paprika. Serve hot or cold.

Mint Brownies

You will be amazed at how much butter goes into these things!

You can use any brownie recipe you like for the brownie part. Here's the one I use:

Quick and Easy Fudgey Brownies

4 bars unsweetened baking chocolate (I always use cocoa and oil, 3 Tbsp. cocoa and 1 Tbsp. oil equal one bar baking chocolate)
3/4 cup butter
2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour
1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9 inch pan. In a large microwaveable bowl, place chocolate and butter. Microwave at high 1-2 minutes or until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Add sugar; stir with spoon until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add flour and nuts; stir until well blended. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out almost clean. Cool on wire rack.

Let brownies cool completely.

Mint Layer:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. peppermint flavoring
2 Tbsp. milk
green food coloring (4 drops)

(These are also fun to make for Valentines Day with pink mint layer!)

Mix ingredients in order. Put mixture on cooled brownies. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Layer:

1 cup chocolate chips
6 Tbsp butter

Cool, then spread over mint layer.