monkey bread

Summary

Yield
Prep Time	2 1⁄2 hours
Tags	Dessert Breakfast

Description

I had heard tell of such a thing as monkey bread, but I used father's day as an excuse to actually look up a recipe or two and try it out. Soooo good. Why didn't I try it before? Reminds me of my friend Amy's "caramel rolls" recipe, with variations on the theme.

Ingredients

1⁄2 dinner roll dough (see below)
2 T melted butter
1⁄3 c white sugar
1⁄3 c brown sugar
2 t cinnamon
2⁄3 c sugar
1⁄2 c butter
1 t vanilla
1 c frozen berries

Instructions

Prepare half of a dinner roll recipe (described here). Stir together 1/3 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and a teaspoon cinnamon. When it comes time to shape the dough (after the first rise), divide the dough into 36 small balls, dip in melted butter, and roll in a mix of white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
Place in a greased bundt pan or a 2-quart baking dish (should take up no more than half the baking area so there is rising room). At this point, you can refrigerate the whole dish until the next day and pick up where you left off, or continue with the recipe.

Let the shaped dough rise 30 minutes (whether you refrigerated it or not). While it is rising preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and frozen berries in a pot until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. You can use the leftover dipping sugar; just add enough extra white sugar to make up whole amount.

Pour the berry sauce over the dough balls. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Turn out on a plate and pull apart to enjoy! Mmm...monkeys know how to make their breads!

Notes

Though I have an obvious preference for homemade dough, you can opt to make a simplification: the bread machine dough cycle can be used with your favorite dough recipe; you can use frozen rolls; or if you must you can use those canned rolls they sell.