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Caramel Monkey Bread is the perfect breakfast or dessert! It’s monkey bread mixed with sticky buns to make the best caramel pull-apart you’ve ever had!
In my family, we would always make monkey bread for Christmas and we also love sticky buns – this recipe is the perfect combination of both. PLUS they’re easy to make with frozen dinner rolls. Gooey Caramel Monkey Bread is the perfect breakfast or brunch and you don’t need any special equipment to make it.
Ingredients Needed
- Dinner Rolls: This recipe uses frozen dinner rolls – like Rhodes brand – the kind that needs to rise.
- Butterscotch Pudding: Not instant pudding! Use cook ‘n serve pudding mix.
- Butter: I typically use unsalted but salted butter may be substituted.
- Nuts: Pecans and Walnuts are great options, use your favorite.
- Brown Sugar: This is what we use to make the gooey caramel sauce.
Using Pillsbury Biscuits
You can make this with the traditional ingredient – canned biscuit dough. You will be able to skip the rising step, but otherwise the recipe is the same. See the recipe below for instructions.
How to Make Caramel Monkey Bread
- Thaw frozen rolls until they are just thawed (not risen), about 1-2 hours.
- Use kitchen shears to cut biscuits into 6 pieces.
- Mix together butter and brown sugar.
- Place nuts and some biscuit pieces in your bundt pan, sprinkle with butterscotch pudding mix, continue layering, then add the butter mixture.
- Cover and let rise.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake rolls until the top is somewhat firm and the center is soft but not gooey-soft. Cool no longer than 5 minutes, then turn pan over on serving plate.
Expert Tips
- I speed up the rising process by placing the pan on top of my stove. The oven was running baking other things, and the rolls rose in about 1 hour.
- I suggest making these the night before and refrigerating them until morning. Let them come to room temperature while the oven is preheating, then bake as directed.
- Butterscotch pudding mix might seem strange, but that mixed with the brown sugar and butter is what creates the gooey caramel. It’s so much easier than using a saucepan to boil sugar and heavy cream.
- These can also be made in a 9×13-inch cake pan. Baking time will be less.
Storage
Store leftover rolls in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You can also freeze leftovers!
Caramel Monkey Bread Recipe
This recipe is going to be your favorite fancy breakfast! Easy frozen dinner rolls are transformed into a gooey caramel pecan monkey bread!
Prep Time 10 hours 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 11 hours
Ingredients
- 16 frozen dinner rolls (such as Rhodes)
- 1 3.5 ounce cook-and-serve butterscotch pudding (NOT instant!)
- ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
- ¾ cup (150g) packed brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons (84g) unsalted butter , melted
Instructions
- Thaw frozen rolls until they are just thawed (not risen), about 1-2 hours.
- Use kitchen shears to cut each roll into 6 pieces.
- Coat a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle all of the nuts in the bottom of the pan. Place half of the roll pieces over the nuts. Sprinkle half of the pudding mix over the rolls.
- Stir together melted butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Pour half over the pudding mix. Top with remaining rolls, pudding mix, and sugar-butter mixture.
- Cover with plastic wrap coated with nonstick cooking spray and let rise overnight, or at least 8 hours. (NOTE: I sped up the rising process by placing the pan on top of my stove. The oven was running baking other things, and the rolls rose in about 1 hour. I suggest making these the night before and refrigerating them until morning. Let them come to room temperature while the oven is preheating, then bake as directed.)
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake rolls for 30-35 minutes until the top is somewhat firm and the center is soft but not gooey-soft. Cool no longer than 5 minutes, then turn pan over on serving dish. Enjoy warm right from the oven!
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
To use Pillsbury canned biscuits, use 2 cans Grands! and slice each into 6 pieces. Skip all the rising steps; layer the biscuits in the pan as directed and then bake right away.
Recipe Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 343kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Sodium: 367mg | Potassium: 175mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 3IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 143mg | Iron: 3mg
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
I’m a firm believer that few things are better than melted caramel goodness surrounding warm bread. ^^^ dying! Need to try this, for real. Pinned!
Just gorgeous!!! Pinned!! I put a monkey-pullapart bread in my latest cookbook but it’s totally scratch…I am loving the Rhodes idea 🙂 What a timesaver! And I mean once it’s drenched in that amazing caramel sauce, who cares what dough was used, right!! 🙂
Yes, these photos DO make me want this pull apart bread right NOW!! In fact, even though your pictures have always been gorgeous Dorothy, I feel like lately there is something extra special beautiful and 3-D ish about your photos that just really make them pop. Maybe it’s the new site lay out. Whatever it is….keep them coming!! 🙂
Wow!! These look amazing! Beautiful photos!
We have Monkey bread every year on Christmas morning. I cannot think about it without thinking about PJs, hot chocolate, stockings and presents. Such good thoughts!
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