Monkey Bread aka Caramel Rolls. Plus, important picture tip!

 

Monkey bread was first introduced to me when I moved to my little town in Wisconsin. The local ladies often met at each other's homes to share a coffee (or a diet coke), some wonderful company and some breakfast treats.

This monkey bread always made an appearance. And it's no wonder. All that sticky caramel goodness on the fresh, hot rolls is to die for. Need I mention that this is a 100% carb dish? Those of you on a low carb or a no carb diet stop reading now!!

I've seen a few recipes for this. They all specify Rhodes dinner rolls. I actually went to the Rhodes website to see if this is where the recipe originated. The recipe wasn't there.

Here we go!

Ingredients

24 Rhodes frozen dinner rolls (I could only find packages of 36)

½ cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 package butterscotch pudding (NOT instant, not diet)
½ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar.

Spray a Brundt pan generously with Pam. (If you don't have one, a tube pan. Or, it also works in your basic 9 x 13 casserole dish. Tastes just as good but not as impressive looking).

Cut the rolls in ½. It allows all the gooy goodness to cover better.

Spread the package of butterscotch powder. It looks like it's too much but it isn't. Do it!!

Melt a stick of butter (½ cup) and add ½ cup of brown sugar.

You know what I'm going to tell you to do with that, don't you? Mix and drizzle evenly over the rolls.

Trust me, it's worth it. All that sugar and butter and butterscotch pudding turns into the most delightful caramel. Don't skimp! This is like a science experiment. Show your kids how the wonderful sugars and butter turn into caramel. Yeah, that's the only reason you made it!

Then you are done for the night.

Pam-ify a piece of tin foil and gently drape it over the top of the pan. The dinner rolls will expand so let them have room. I don't seal the tinfoil around the pan. Just kind of shape it so when the dough rises, so does the foil. If you grease or spray Pam on your foil, it comes off soooo easy.

Put it on your counter or oven overnight.

The next morning, if your honey loves you, he'll turn the oven to 325 to preheat the oven when he gets up. So, when the coffee is also made, you can get up and take the foil off the top and put the whole thing in the oven. Those suckers rise a lot overnight!

Make sure your rack is towards the lower portion of your oven so the top of your monkey bread isn't too close to the top element. Ask me how I came up with that one!

Bake about 30 minutes. Watch closely during the last 5 minutes. The top will get really brown (and hard) really fast. You want that lovely golden color.

Let the pan cool for about 5 minutes while you get your nice plate or lovely platter out.

Quickly flip the monkey bread onto the platter (you still need your oven mitts).

Slowly lift up the pan. I've never had a problem with it coming out. There is so much liquid caramel and the weight of the rolls make everything slide out easily.

Thank you Cindy and Myrna for sharing your recipes! My readers will be thankful to you too!

HUGE photo tip!
I'm learning every day as I write this blog. It took me a while to figure out this tip. The food must be appetizing and if the picture doesn't turn out, people don't look at the recipe. What I've learned is to take picture of your recipe with natural lighting. Sounds so simple but it makes a HUGE difference. Take a look at the pictures. Even I'm amazed!!

Picture at night with a flash:

Picture in the day with natural light from my kitchen window:

It's really easy to tell which one looks better! The only difference is taking the picture with natural light!