Pull-Apart Bread Recipe (Monkey Bread with Frozen Rolls)

Pull-apart bread, also called monkey bread or bubble loaf, is a ring of soft sweet rolls baked in a sticky sauce and eaten by tearing off one piece at a time. This version starts with a 36-count bag of frozen yeast rolls, so there is no dough to mix or knead.

The rolls are stacked in two layers in a foil-lined 10-inch tube pan. Each layer gets half a box of cook-and-serve pudding mix and half of a melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon sauce. Butterscotch, vanilla and chocolate pudding all work, as long as the mix is the cook-and-serve kind and not instant.

Timing is flexible. Assemble the pan in the evening and let it rise for 8 to 12 hours overnight, or build it first thing in the morning so it is ready for the oven by evening. The loaf starts in a 350°F oven that is turned down to 325°F, and once the top is deep golden it is covered with foil for the final 30 minutes of baking.

Pull-Apart Bread (Monkey Bread)

Frozen yeast rolls layered with cook-and-serve pudding mix and a cinnamon brown sugar butter sauce, left to rise overnight and baked in a 10-inch tube pan.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Rising time 12 hours hrs

Total Time 13 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Servings: 18 servings

Course: Bread, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• One 36-count package frozen yeast bread rolls about 3 pounds
• One 3.5-ounce box cook-and-serve pudding mix not instant, vanilla, chocolate or butterscotch

For the sauce

• 1 1/2 sticks butter or 3/4 cup margarine or non-dairy spread, melted
• 3/4 cup brown sugar packed
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 teaspoons for a stronger cinnamon flavor

Method

 

Prepare the pan and sauce

1. Take the tube insert out of a 10-inch two-piece tube (angel food) pan. Line the inside of the pan with two sheets of aluminum foil, set the tube back in place, and coat everything with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Melt the butter (or margarine or non-dairy spread). In a measuring cup or small bowl, stir the cinnamon and brown sugar into it until the sauce is well blended.

Layer the rolls and let them rise

1. Arrange 18 frozen rolls in a single layer in the prepared pan.
2. Scatter half of the dry pudding mix over the rolls, then drizzle on half of the sauce.
3. Stack the other 18 rolls over them as a second layer. Sprinkle with the rest of the pudding mix and pour over the rest of the sauce.
4. Coat a long piece of plastic wrap with nonstick cooking spray and lay it loosely over the rolls. Drape a towel over the pan.
5. Put the pan in a draft-free spot, or inside the oven with the heat switched OFF, and let the rolls rise overnight, 8 to 12 hours (less in a warm room, more in a cool one), until they have roughly doubled and puffed up close to the rim of the pan.

Bake

1. If the rolls rose in the oven, take the pan out now. Remove the plastic wrap, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat, and stand the tube pan on it so any drips are caught.
2. Heat the oven to 350°F. When it is up to temperature, slide the sheet and pan into the oven and lower the heat to 325°F right away.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the top is a deep golden color.
4. Pull the baking sheet out of the oven. Wearing oven gloves, cover the top of the bread with two long sheets of foil that have been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
5. Return it to the oven and bake 30 minutes longer, which brings the baking time to 38 to 40 minutes in all. Check that the center is baked: an instant-read thermometer pushed into the bread between the rolls, halfway between the tube and the side of the pan, should read 190°F. If it is lower, bake 5 minutes more, still covered, and check again. Take the bread out and uncover it.

Turn out

1. The pan will still be very hot, so keep oven gloves on. Place a pan or heatproof serving dish upside down over the top of the tube pan.
2. Slide one hand under the tube pan and hold the dish in place with the other, then flip both over in a single motion so the tube pan ends up sitting on the dish. Set it down.
3. Lift off the outer part of the pan, peel away the foil and pull out the tube insert.
4. Let the bread cool for at least 10 minutes before pulling it apart, as the sauce is very hot.

Notes

Equipment: one 10-inch two-piece tube pan, aluminum foil, plastic wrap and nonstick cooking spray.

The schedule can be shifted: assemble at night and bake in the morning, or assemble at the start of the day and bake that evening.

Refrigerator option: cover the assembled pan as directed and refrigerate it for 8 to 12 hours instead of leaving it out. In the morning, check the rolls. If they have not yet doubled and puffed up close to the rim, leave the pan at room temperature until they have, anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on how much they rose in the cold. Judge by the size of the rolls rather than the clock, then bake as directed.

In a kitchen warmer than about 75°F, the rolls can over-rise on the counter overnight and sink in the oven; use the refrigerator option instead.

Any flavor of cook-and-serve pudding mix can be used; butterscotch is a good choice.

Leftovers keep, covered, at room temperature for up to 2 days. Warm pieces in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds to soften the sauce.