Monkey Bread with Rhodes Dinner Rolls

The last couple months I’ve been hearing a ton of talk about Monkey Bread and it always looked sooooo good! When I found out that The Pioneer Women featured it awhile back, I knew I HAD to try it. Have you seen her blog and cookbook? ALL her recipes turn out delicious and are easy to do – she is my hero 🙂

Now, I usually follow every recipe by the book, but there was one small problem here… She used the pre-made biscuits 🙁 For some reason, I don’t really like those, they always leave a funny taste in my mouth… But I knew I LOVED Rhodes Dinner Rolls, so I experimented a little and after a couple of tries, it turned out perfect! Here’s a look at what I did:
Gather your ingredients.
First, open the bag of rolls up and let them thaw out for about an hour.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon together. You could also do this in a zip lock bag.
Grease your pan. I used a 13 x 19.
Cut your rolls into 1/4. First time I tried this, I did 1/2, and they turned out bigger than one bite… even though the 1/4 will look small, they grow when they bake!
Put the quartered rolls into the cinnamon sugar mix.
Mix them up 🙂
Pull the coated pieces out and put them in the 13 x 19 pan.
This shows how close your going to cut it with your cinnamon sugar mix, it’s just enough! The little bit that is left, I sprinkled over the top of the rolls in the pan.
Yuuuummmmy!
Okay, start melting the evidence… I mean butter 🙂
The brown sugar goes into the butter and needs to cook until the sugar and butter combine together, about 2 minutes… depends on how hot your heat is.
This is what it should look like!
Now, pour the mixture over the sugary rolls. Try to get it as even as possible.
Ta da! It’s ready for the oven!
Wait. Had to get a close up shot 🙂
I baked this batch for 35 minutes. The first batch I baked for 20 minutes and it was pretty doughy. Baking for 35 minutes makes the tops a little crunchy, but everyone said it was better this way.

Notice how close the rolls and sauce come to spilling over the pan? Best to put something on the rack below so you don’t make a mess in the oven.
Here they are! Are you getting hungry, yet?

In true Pioneer Women fashion, and because I love how she does this, I now must tempt you even more 🙂
See how the sugar cinnamon mix completely coats them? This makes them pull apart so easily.
And, really, the fork is just for the photo 🙂 at this point I wasn’t wasting time eating them using a fork 🙂
Yes, totally okay to lick the plate, I won’t tell anyone!
Another close up 🙂
Uh oh! I told everyone they could try ONE before the company arrived… Who tried more than 10?!!

Recipe:

Ingredients:
36 Rhodes Dinner Rolls, thawed
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1 1/2 cubes of butter
1 cup brown sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350

Mix sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Cut the rolls into 1/4 pieces and coat each piece in the sugar/cinnamon mix. Lay the coated rolls into a greased 13 x 19 casserole dish.

Melt the butter on the stove over med. heat. Once melted, pour in the cup of brown sugar and stir constantly. When the butter and sugar have combined (about 2 minutes), pour this mixture over the rolls in the pan.

Cook them in the oven for 35 minutes – these will come very close to spilling over when they bake, so if possible, protect your oven with a pan on the rack below.

Try to let them cool a little before diving in 😉 They are best when warm. Enjoy!

Comments