Not Quite Monkey Bread

I've heard it called a few different things, Monkey Bread or Pull Apart Bread.  Not sure if that is a regional thing???  In Minnesota it goes my Monkey Bread, not exactly sure why but if you are interested I'm sure Dr. Google would let you know.  No matter where you are from and what you call it Monkey Bread is straight up delicious.  The warm bread!  Some of it crusty.  Some of it soft!  The cinnamon.  The caramel.  It's a perfect combo.  

I've been on a gluten free diet for a little over 6 months now, not by choice unfortunately.  I'm always looking at making substitutions to recreate some of my old favorites.  I've had a lot of successes and some failures.  Beer has been a failure, seriously disappointing.  Otherwise, I've found a bread recipe, some pancake recipes, some muffin recipes that are really good.  
With this creation I wasn't even trying to recreate Monkey Bread.  After having it though, it was as good as I remember the real thing.  If you can't tell by the picture the key difference is that it is made from plantains.  

The only tricky part about making these is having patience to allow your plantains to ripen to the point that they get semi-sweet.  The plantains pictured below are still mabye even a little under ripe for how I would prefer them.  You want to start seeing some black spots covering the peel of the plantain.  That's when you know they are ready to go.  If you buy them green in the store, it will likely take almost a week to get to that point.  

I'm going to forego the fancy ingredients and directions because honestly this is so easy to make I can just tell you.  A serving size for me is 1 plantain.  Even our 16 month old son can take down an entire plantain himself.  However, if you are watching your carbs a bit you might want to split a plantain with someone else.  If you are cooking for more, just scale the recipe up.  

​To make these I will cut the plantains into 1/2" half moon shaped pieces.  Then in a medium-hot skillet I add a couple teaspoons of bacon grease.  If you don't save your bacon fat, start doing it, it makes for a great cooking fat.  Sautee your plantains for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until they start getting a little carmelized and brown/black.  I usually season with a pinch of salt while they are cooking.  Once they are cooked, there is the option to add about 1 tbsp of butter to really kick up the flavor.  I just add that to the pan and toss the plantains until the butter is melted and coated the plantains.  Depending on how ripe your plantains are they may or may not need the butter.  When they are more ripe I will likely not add the butter but if they are still a little firmer texture they tend to soak up the fat and they need a little extra shot at the end.  Either way they will be delicious!  

I like to then put the cooked, buttered delicious plantains in a separate bowl and add roughly a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.  I don't measure I just shake enough out of the spice jar until it looks like they will be adequately coated.  I like to do this in a separate bowl versus a skillet because I find you have to add about twice as much cinnamon because a lot gets absorbed by the leftover fat in the pan and it doesn't make it onto the plantains.  That's it!!!  

Hope you enjoy and let us know if you try these.