NCKAA: 24 Days Until Christmas

No, you didn't miss the 25 Days Until Christmas post ... I didn't write one. Yesterday was a sad day and didn't involve any cooking or culinary creativity. My dog passed away and I ate ice cream from McDonald's instead. Solace in food is bad, I know. But he loved ice cream!

Anyway, I owe you two recipes so I am going to divulge two ways to use Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls for breakfast.

Hungry Girl Monkey Bread

3 tbsp. No Calorie Sweetener (granulated), divided
2 tsp. cinnamon, divided
2 tbsp. light whipped butter or light buttery spread (like Brummel & Brown)
2 tbsp. sugar-free pancake syrup
2 tbsp. brown sugar (not packed)
1 package Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet
1/2 tsp. baking powder

*If you don't have the dough sheet, use reduced fat crescent rolls and smoosh the edges together to create a "seamless" sheet. It doesn't matter how perfect it looks.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix 1 tbsp. Sweetener and 1 tsp. cinnamon in a large bowl or container. Set aside. Spray six cups of a muffin pan with nonstick spray, and set pan aside as well.

3. Place a small pot on the stove, but do not heat it. Add butter, syrup, brown sugar, 2 tbsp. sweetener, and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Leave this on the unheated stove, to be melted and mixed later.

4. Roll out the dough on a clean dry surface (smoosh if using rolls), and sprinkle evenly with baking powder. Gently smooth baking powder into the sheet with your fingers.
5. Cut dough sheet widthwise into six strips equal in size. Cut each strip into four squares. Using your hands, roll each square into a ball, for a total of 24 dough balls.

6. Place 12 dough balls in the bowl with the sweetener-cinnamon mixture. Lightly toss to coat, and then place them gently in the muffin pan, with four dough balls in each of three cups. No need to press the dough balls into the pan -- just let them fall naturally. Repeat with remaining dough balls, so that each of the six muffin cups contains four coated dough balls. Set aside.

7. Bring the small pot on the stove to medium heat. Stirring frequently, heat just until butter has melted and contents are mixed well. Evenly spoon the butter mixture over the dough balls.

Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes, or until puffy and firm. Allow to cool slightly, and then plate and enjoy! There will be gooeyness in the bottom of the cups - I make sure to scoop that out and drizzle it on top of each "muffin."

Serves 6.
Nutritional Information: Calories: 154; Fat: 7.5g; Sodium: 369mg; Carbs: 21g; Fiber: 0.5g; Sugars: 6.5g; Protein: 2g

It's worth the hassle to make these (I know it looks complicated, but it really isn't!) because they look pretty impressive. But if you just don't wanna go through the steps, here is a similar recipe from my mom that is a Christmas morning tradition for us (The monkey bread, however, will soon be added to the list of traditional eats).


Tiny Cinnamon Rolls

1 8 ounce can refrigerated reduced fat crescent rolls
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Unroll crescent roll dough and put the pieces together to make one rectangle of dough.
Pinch the seams together to seal

Stir together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the dough rectangle –
leave one edge plain (so the dough will stick together after you roll it)

Roll up, starting with a long side. Go slowly and try to keep the roll from being too
loose. Press the edges to seal.

Cut the log into 12 slices and place in a lightly greased 8” cake pan – or into mini-muffin
pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes

Icing:
1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk (or more)
1 drip vanilla extract

Combine powdered sugar, milk and vanilla, stirring until smooth; drizzle over warm
cinnamon rolls.


I haven't calculated the nutrition stats for this, but the icing holds a lot of extra sugar, to be honest. It might be yummy to make this with the syrup from the Monkey Bread recipe!