Rhodes Rolls Monkey Bread
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With only 6 ingredients and can be prepared the night before, you are going to love this overnight monkey bread and maybe hate me little for how easy and crazy good it is. Better break out the stretch pants for this easy monkey bread recipe made with frozen Rhodes dinner rolls and butterscotch pudding. This is perfect to make for Christmas morning!
When it comes to breakfast I actually tend to lean towards a big old breakfast sandwich with crispy strips of bacon and dripping in cheese, or maybe a delicious easy baked fritatta. But then there is one way to have me steer away from it.
And that’s monkey bread.
But monkey bread from scratch can take awhile, so I decided to simplify it by using store-bought Rhodes dinner rolls and butterscotch pudding. This monkey bread comes together so simple fast. Prepare it the night before and stay in your pajamas a little longer the morning of.
Here’s a list of the best Thanksgiving recipes for the whole day, featuring breakfast, appetizers, the main event, dessert, and of course, what to do with all that leftover turkey. Check out the full list here: 25 Thanksgiving Recipes.
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Why Is It Called Monkey Bread?
The reason it’s called monkey bread is because of how it’s meant to be eaten. You are meant to pick the bread rolls apart and eat them with your fingers. Like a monkey might!
See Also:
- Move over pumpkin! This butternut squash bread recipe is an easy loaf bread to make in the Fall.
- For more whole grain goodness, try my whole wheat blueberry muffins. These are the best breakfast treat!
- Sugar donuts are a fun breakfast treat to make with yeast! Dipped in sugar these donuts are light and fluffy.
- For a traditional Swedish breakfast treat during the holidays try making these St Lucia buns flavored with saffron!
Why You Will Love This Rhodes Roll Monkey Bread
- Only 6 Ingredients – Yup, you only need 6 ingredients to make this insanely easy monkey bread.
- Quick Prep – You can prepare this overnight monkey bread using frozen dinner rolls in about 15 minutes or less making it a super easy holiday breakfast to prepare.
- One Bowl – Basically all you need is to melt together some butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon on the stovetop and everything else gets dumped right into your bundt pan. Less dirty dishes around the holidays? Yes please!
Ingredients Needed
- Rhodes Dinner Rolls – Mine came in a bag of 36 count, and said “thaw, rise, and bake” on them.
- Pecans – Walnuts would be a good substitution.
- Butterscotch pudding – Not the instant pudding kind. This is going to make the “caramel” sauce that covers the monkey bread in the end and is essential in making this recipe. Can also swap and use vanilla pudding but will have less caramel flavor.
- Brown Sugar – Light or dark brown sugar will work. Try making your own brown sugar if you run out!
- Unsalted butter – But salted butter will also work.
- Cinnamon
How To Make Overnight Monkey Bread With Butterscotch Pudding
Grease a 12-cup capacity bundt pan. I like to use cooking spray with flour, but you can also grease with shortening, or regular cooking spray.
Sprinkle some pecans in the bottom of your greased bundt pan and place your rolls evenly around. You want them in the bottom of your bundt pan, so they don’t burn while baking and when you invert the monkey bread, the pecans will be on top.
Place your frozen dinner rolls on top. I used 24 Rhodes frozen dinner rolls.
There is no need to thaw the rolls.
Then sprinkle a box of butterscotch pudding (not the instant pudding kind!) over the rolls.
Next, all you have to do is combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon on the stove until melted and combined.
Then pour the melted butter brown sugar mixture over the rolls.
Cover the bundt pan with plastic wrap loosely (these will rise quite a bit), and let rise.
Rising Times
- Day Before (24 hours): Cover and let rise in the fridge for 24 hours. I love prepping this the morning before I plan to serve and then pop in the fridge and they are ready to bake the next morning.
- Overnight: Let rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours just to basically let them partially thaw, then cover and let rise in the fridge for 8-10 hours. This is a great night before option!
- “Last Minute”: Let them rise at room temperature for 5-6 hours then bake. Great for early morning risers and serving for a late brunch!
Once they have risen, go ahead and bake! I recommend placing a cookie sheet underneath to catch any drips. The tops of the rolls are going to rise above the pan, which is normal. If while baking, the tops of the rolls are getting too dark, simply tent loosely with aluminum foil to keep from getting too dark. I like to test with a thermometer to see the inside rolls are baked and reached an internal temperature of 190oF.
If you don’t own a thermometer, simply use a butter knife, and reach in and pull apart two of the rolls to look for raw dough. Raw dough means it needs more time baking!
Then let them cool in the pan for about 5-10 minutes or so, and invert onto a platter. There may be some “caramel drippage” so you might want to use a platter with an edge, but I used my cake stand and they turned out just fine.
Recipe Tips
- No need to thaw frozen rolls – You do not need to let them thaw, simply place the frozen roll dough in the bundt pan frozen.
- Preheat your oven – Be sure to preheat your oven before baking. Do not place in a cold oven or they will not rise and come out fluffy!
Recipe Variations
- Use a tube pan – Instead of a bundt cake pan you can bake this in a tube pan instead.
- Use a different flavor pudding mix– If you can’t find butterscotch pudding mix, try just use regular vanilla pudding mix.
Recipe FAQ’s
You can bake this in a tube pan or 2 loaf pans. If baking in loaf pans, you will want to bake for less time. Start checking around 20-25 minutes.
Store at room temperature overnight, well covered, or in the fridge for up to 4 days.
For this overnight monkey bread version, you don’t need to let them thaw. Simply place them in your pan frozen. If you let them thaw, you would want to bake them right away, but it won’t yield quite a fluffy of a bread in the end. If you wanted to cut the pieces into smaller chunks, then you would need to let them thaw, cut and then bake immediately, but I haven’t tried it this way.
I haven’t tried reheating the entire thing, but I have reheated small chunks of it in the microwave for 15-20 second intervals at a time just fine.
More Recipes To Try
So when you wake up tomorrow, you simply press START on your oven, and relax on the couch (with maybe a big mug of Homemade Hot Cocoa) and know that easy monkey bread is going to be ready before you know it.
If you love this recipe, be sure to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below!
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Overnight Monkey Bread (Rhodes Rolls Monkey Bread)
Ingredients
- 24 unbaked frozen yeast dinner rolls *I used Rhodes frozen dinner rolls
- 1 3-ounce package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix (do not use instant)
- 1/2 cup (107 g) packed light brown sugar *dark brown sugar will also work
- 3/4 cups chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup (1 stick, 113 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Grease a 12-cup capacity bundt pan. I like to use cooking spray with flour, but you can also grease with shortening, or regular cooking spray.
- Sprinkle the pecans into the bottom of the pan.
- Place the frozen rolls into the pan around and on top of each other over the nuts.
- Sprinkle the dry pudding mix over the rolls.
- On a stove over medium low, in a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Stir and heat until melted and combined.
- Drizzle the melted butter mixture over the rolls.
- Let rise. To prevent the dough from forming a hard crust while rising cover with a lightly damp tea towel over top, or place a piece of plastic wrap very loosely over the top and allow to hang at the sides (do not make the wrap tight as these will rise to double).Allow to rise for 24 hours in the fridge, covered. Or rise for 2-3 hours at room temperature, then 8-10 hours in the fridge, covered. Or rise 5-6 hours at room temperature.
- Bake. Near the end of the rising time, position a rack in the center of the oven and pre-heat oven to 350°F (177°C). Place the bundt pan on a baking sheet (lined with foil for easy clean up) to catch drips). Bake for about 35 minutes until tops are golden brown, and internal temperature reaches 190°F. (if rolls are getting too dark on top, tent loosely with foil). Remove the pan from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Turn the pan over and invert onto a serving plate and serve warm.
Notes
- Storage: Store overnight at room temperature covered, or in the fridge, for up to 4 days.
- Pan: You can bake this in a tube pan or 2 loaf pans. If baking in loaf pans, you will want to bake for less time. Start checking around 20-25 minutes.
- Pudding mix: Do not use the instant kind. If you can’t find the butterscotch flavor swap and use vanilla (your rolls may just have a little less caramel flavor).
Hadn’t made this recipe in years and was happy to find it on your site! But for the first time ever, the “drizzle” was really gritty. I put a half inch of water in a pan at the bottom of the the oven to add some moisture. It made the rolls rise perfectly and have a beautiful golden crust. That’s the only thing I did different this time. But I can’t imagine that would have caused the grittiness. Any idea what might have gone wrong?
Hi Valea, The water trick likely helped with the rise and crust, but it might have added extra moisture that affected the sugar, resulting in your gritty issue. Hard to say for sure, but that’s my best guess!
1st time I made I used the whole bag of frozen dinner rolls and it grew out of the pan. I had to transferred 1/2 to another pan. Was good but made a lot so I froze the bread. Going to try again today.
Thank you for sharing your experience! I’m glad you enjoyed the Monkey Bread. Good luck with your next batch!
I would like to add cream cheese frosting at some point. Suggestions?
Yes, you can spread a cream cheese icing over the rolls before serving. I like to spread on while they are still slightly warm. 🙂
Why did my rolls fall? Disappointing for presentation today, Easter morning for brunch at church. I hope they taste okay. 😔
Hi Kelly, can’t say for sure perhaps they rose for too long or your rolls were expired?
Nope! Purchased rolls yesterday; rose over night. The good news is people enjoyed them and only a small amount came home. They were finished when we had lunch with my parents for lunch!
I’m glad they were enjoyed by everyone!
Turned out perfect.
aw that’s great to hear Lori!!
So glad to find this recipe again! I had found it years ago but haven’t made it for ages. Recently happened to think about and wasn’t sure I could find the recipe. Makes a great monkey bread 🙂
aw wonderful Janet! I’m so happy to hear that you loved it 🙂 and that you “found it” again haha!
I love making this at Christmas time, but often it comes out with a little “gummy” consistency. I use the overnight recipe. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Carol – I haven’t experienced a gummy consistency myself so can’t say for sure. Perhaps could be how you’re greasing your pan?
This is a Christmas classic for our family. Now that my grandparents have passed, and my son is now 16, I don’t have to wake up so early to get this in the oven. I was concerned about the amount of time I would leave it out to rise, so I followed the instructions of letting it rise for 2 hours first, then put it in the fridge for 8 hours. I’ve never put it in the fridge before during this process. The dough did not rise! I was so bummed. I have it out now and it’s starting to rise. We will just have it later in the day rather than in the morning. I’m wondering if I did something wrong?? I hope it bakes up ok!
Hi Michelle, depends on the temperature of your kitchen you may have just needed a bit more time to let it rise at room temperature. Hope it turned out ok!
I proofed it in the oven – turned it on to 175, turned it off, put the pan in and let it sit for a couple of hours – worked great! I think I will just let it sit out overnight in the counter as in years past. Regardless, these rolls are always a hit!! Thank you!!
glad the oven proofing worked for you :)an glad you loved it so much!! : )
This is a Christmas tradition from my Mom. She is my angel now but we make this for Christmas morning
Aw that’s so sweet! I love that you make this to keep the memory of your mom alive. Merry Christmas!
This was absolutely wonderful!! Thank you so so so much.
you’re so welcome!
Hello 😊 Is there anything else I can use instead of the Butterscotch pudding? Can I use Vanilla and put Caramel all over it?
Please let me know 🙏🏻💕
Hi Dottie! I think vanilla would work fine and then yes you could drizzle caramel over before serving! Let me know if you try it this way 🙂
I make this recipe using the frozen bread dough. I place the bread dough out to rise over night. Then in the morning I spray a Bundt pan and tear up one bread in the pan. Then I cook the pudding mix, brown sugar, and butter til melted. I pour half the mixture over the bread dough and then tear up the other bread dough. Then pour rest of mixture over the top. I set the oven to 250 degrees and then turn off. Put the Bundt pan in and let the bread rise again. Once it rises again I turn it to 350 and bake for 30 minutes. It turns out great!
That’s awesome Deb!! I love proofing in my oven too 🙂 glad you enjoyed this recipe!