Whoopie Pies..Monkey Bread.. & Monkey Cupcakes! YUM!

Whoopie Pies
From allrecipes.com
Ingredients

1 cup shortening
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sour milk
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup hot water
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups shortening
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 egg whites, beaten
Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
In a large bowl, cream together 1 cup of shortening and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time then stir in the vanilla and sour milk. Combine the flour, cocoa and salt, stir into the creamed mixture. Stir together the baking soda and hot water then mix them into the batter last. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm but not overbaked. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
To make the filling: In a medium bowl, cream together the 1 1/2 cups shortening with the confectioners' sugar and 1/4 cup of flour until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the milk and vanilla until well mixed, then fold in the egg whites. Sandwich at least 1 tablespoon of filling between the flat sides of two cookies.

They make great gifts. I sent these to work with Karl, the guys loved them.

Monkey Bread
Lori Farnsworths bread recipe (cut in half for one monkey bread, use full recipe for two. Or full recipe for one monkey bread cake and 24 monkey bread cupcakes.)
P.S. For the monkey bread I only use white flour....

(Karl took the pictures of the monkey bread, before it was glazed.)
Fast and Easy Homemade Wheat Bread
4 cups hot tap water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons saf-instant yeast

Put hot water in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and yeast. Stir. Let rest about 10 minutes or until yeast is bubbly.

Next add:
2 tablespoons potato pearls
2 tablespoons oil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup honey or sugar

Stir all together.

Then add
5 cups of red wheat flour
4-5 cups of white wheat flour

Can be any other combination of flour. But this is the combo I like the best.

Mix all together with wooden spoon until you get a soft dough. Dump onto a kneading surface and knead in additional flour until a nice stiff ball is accomplished. Cover with damp towel and let rise for 20-30 minutes.
For the monkey bread cake:
slice little slivers of butter across the bottom of the pan. roll about 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls of dough then roll them in sugar cinnamon mix, start layering bunt pan. about every two layers add more slivers of butter and sprinkle brown sugar. Continue to about 3/4 of the way up the pan. Bake for about 30 to 35 min, at 350 degrees. Let cool in pan for 30 min before inverting pan to get out bread onto serving plate.
Glaze with powder sugar glaze or sweetened condensed milk.
For Cupcakes:
Roll about 3 balls 1/2 inch thick. Roll in sugar cinnamon mix, put in cupcake liners. Top with small pad of butter and brown sugar. Cook for about 10 min at 350 degrees. Glaze with powder sugar glaze. I even added cream cheese frosting to my last batch, yummy.