i need to share this recipe for overnight monkey bread with you all because a) it was so super easy to make, b) it made itself overnight – all i had to do was bake it in the morning, and c) my kids devoured it!!! it is so good. there is nothing like having a super yummy breakfast that you don’t have to spend your time putting together early in the morning. it just makes it taste that much better, i think! and make sure you try this one if you’re looking for an easy 5 ingredient monkey bread recipe that doesn’t require an overnight rise. aside: you can also try this highly reviewed (pinterest users LOVE it. soooooo goood) and fool-proof homemade cinnamon roll recipe that is to die for!!
here are the simple steps:
1. gather your very few, very easy ingredients: frozen dinner rolls, a small box of cook and serve butterscotch pudding, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. it can’t get easier than that! (psst – you don’t even have to prepare the pudding!!)
2. place frozen dinner rolls into a bundt pan (i use this pan and i love it! – aff link).
3. sprinkle the rolls with butterscotch pudding – straight out of the box.
4. melt butter and pour over top.
5. sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon (stir them together in a bowl first).
6. cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit overnight.
7. go to bed.
that’s seriously all you have to do! when you wake up in the morning it will look all glorious and puffed up and risen like this:
bake it in the oven for half an hour before flipping it onto a large plate. you will want to catch every last drop of the syrup it makes – i promise, it tastes really good!!
the best part about monkey bread (aside from how easy it is to put together!) is eating it – just pull apart the little pieces of dough and enjoy! there is no need to cut slices for everyone like you would with pie or cake or anything like that! it’s a total finger food.
and if you want, you can even sprinkle it with chopped walnuts or pecans for a little bit of extra flavor and crunch. yum!!!
this recipe is so perfect for a busy saturday morning…or a lazy one, too! enjoy this deliciously easy monkey bread, everyone!
if you’re feeling charitable, please consider jumping over to pinterest and repinning this monkey bread recipe in visual format! not to mention for future deliciousness. 🙂
here’s the full recipe and instructions:
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overnight monkey bread
Ingredients
- 24 frozen dinner rolls
- 1 small box cook and serve butterscotch pudding
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- place frozen dinner rolls into a bundt pan. sprinkle with butterscotch pudding. melt butter and pour over top. sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight.
- in the morning, preheat the oven to 350 and bake for 30 minutes. (put a cookie underneath to catch any drips.) remove from oven and turn over onto a plate big enough to catch all the gooey syrup that will spill out of the bundt pan.
One of favorite breakfast treats. These are yummy!
I have made this for years-a family favorite! I add chopped walnuts and raisins to bottom of pan for more buttery goodness-also you can use any frozen bread dough balls–depending on size of pan full two thirds full and it won’t rise out of the pan
walnuts and raisins sound lovely! i’ll try that next time for sure! thanks, shay! 🙂
I got the sugared pecans at Costco and put them in the bottom of the bunds pan first. Totally awesome!
Love it!!
Mine stuck to pan…total fail. My sister’s too. Suggestions?
You could try spraying the pan before you put anything in. They’ve never stuck for me before, but that would be my suggestion.
Mine rose way up out of the pan. It looks like attack of the killer monkey bread. Haven’t put it in the oven yet, hopefully it still works or I too will have an epic fail :s
if it comes up way above the edge of the pan, you can always poke the outer rolls to push them back in. it will still turn out 🙂 even if when it’s in the oven it gets a little higher, it usually settles a little bit when it cools. hope that helps!
Use a good non-stick bundt pan or spray/butter your pan well (or do both). Do not wait for the monkey bread to cool…overturn the pan within 5 min of removing the pan from the oven…The caramel will stick when cooled below 160 degrees!
Oh my…that looks dangerously tasty. I’m scared to bookmark it 🙂 Thanks!
Amy, it really is!! I kept coming back to get more of the yummy goo that was dripping off – delicious!! 🙂
I got the wrong kind of rolls I guess. I thought Rhodes just made one kind. Mine are not round but more oval and puffy. I would barely get one bag of 10 in the pan! Will probably taste great though! Are you supposed to let them sit in the refrigerator overnight or on the counter? Thanks!
Hi Jennifer, I’m sure they tasted just great! I’ve done both ways – one night I was up really late and just left them on the countertop for a few hours until the morning and they rose a ton! I’ve also done them in the fridge overnight and while they didn’t rise as much, they puffed up a little more in the oven and still tasted just as good! Hope that helps!
Hi! Trying these tomorrow morning, just finished the simple prep and hoping it tastes as incredible as it looks! I’ll post an update thanks for this fun idea!!!
My first attempt at the recipe was good but a little dry, so when I maser it again this morning instead so 1 stick of butter I used a stick and a half, I also didn’t have any butterscotch pudding so I used chocolate pudding and added walnuts and a little more brown sugar throughout. OMG it was soo good. My husband said that it was better the anything at Cinnamon Bun.
glad it worked out for you in the end! thanks for sharing.
I must admit I cannot successfully make this recipe.I’ve tried it twice and both times it spilled waaay over the top andmade a huge mess. (I did have a pan under it). So, this post has inspired me to try again… 🙂
hope it worked out for you this time!
Try putting less frozen bread balls in. I always cut mine in half and stack them unevenly. Cover with a tea towel and go to bed. Next morning pop them suckers in the oven. Done and done. I’ve been making these for 40 years. Don’t Forget The Melted ed butter….I did that once…that didn’t work out! My only strike out. (I ALWAYS coat the bottom with old fashioned CRISCO. MY NEVER STICKS.)
This didn’t work for me at all. I put it in the refrigerator overnight and in the morning I set it out on the counter for about an hour before baking. The rolls never rose and were just hard balls of dough after baking. I don’t know what I did wrong
So sorry to hear that, Tanya! You can try leaving them out on the counter top overnight – when I’ve done that they’ve risen like crazy, to the point where i have to poke them to try to fit them all back in the pan 🙂
Does it have to be a bundt pan? I don’t own one(yet) I have a bread pan or several other pyrex dishes.
good question! it might be worth a try to use a 9×13? it would just spread out instead of up. now you’ve got me curious, and i might try it this way myself! if you try it first, let me know how it goes! thanks, rachel!
I did this tonight I had to make 2 “monkey breads” so we’ll see how it turns out I did it before in the past with regular biscuit dough andthey turned out just as awesome. Good luck to you
I hope you enjoyed them!
I don’t have a bundt pan either so I used the Pampered Chef round stoneware 11″ Deep Dish Baker. The recipe I followed called for 20 rolls w/1/2 pkg of butterscotch pudding. I used 21 rolls and they turned out awesome! My guess is that a full pkg of the pudding would be great as well. 🙂 I’m gonna try that next time….
I’m glad it turned out awesome for you! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
Mine didn’t rise last night. I put in a cold oven the night before at midnight. It’s now 2:00 the next afternoon with just a little rise to it. Is there anything i can do?
Hmm, I’ve never heard of it not rising before. You may need to get it rising in a warmer place – you could still use the oven, but put a pan of boiling hot water in with it, or turn the oven on to a really low temperature like 200 degrees. Or if your kitchen is relatively warm you could try just setting it on the countertop. Let me know how it goes!
I made with a cake pan, about 5 x9. Works fine, but there is more “top”
That’s great, Debbie! Thanks for letting us know!
Can I use “instant” butterscotch pudding? My commissary here in The Netherlands doesn’t carry “cook & serve”.
Hi Jennifer! Great question! I haven’t tried it with instant pudding, but it might be worth a try! If you do try it, let me know how it goes – I’d love to know!!
I’ve tried it (accidentally got instant instead of cook & serve one time) and it is not nearly as good. My family always makes this for Christmas breakfast!
Thanks for the heads up Courtney!
Hello,
I have made this 3 times before and it is incredible all my coworkers devour it!!! I just sat a batch out to sit overnight and I got the instant pudding by mistake so we will see how this batch turns out in the morning! Thanks!!
Yay! I’m so happy that you (and your coworkers) like it! Haha, I’m curious to know how it turned out this time! 🙂
This recipe is sinful. Never had a problem with them, except they often rise over the edge of the pan. Didn’t know I could poke them to fit them back into the pan. I just let them droop over the edge. You will definitely need to place the pan onto a cookie sheet to catch the drippings. Also, when baked, turn them out onto another cookie sheet. Happy eating!
Thanks, Janice! You’re right – these are so gooey and so yummy! 🙂
We’ve been making these yummy rolls for years. I putt foil over mine and let them rise overnight in a cold oven and set my oven timer so they are finished baking when I get up! Then all I have to do is turn them over and watch everybody enjoy.
I made this last night. It is wonderful! I did quarter the dough balls which allowed everything to coat the bread even more. I wish I would have gotten a bit more syrup out of it. So next time I am going to increase the amount of butter cinnamon and sugar.Thanks for the great recipe.
glad you liked it! great suggestion for people who love the syrup 🙂
I have made the grands biscuit version of these before and, although they were tasty, they felt like they were missing something. I am incredibly excited to try this version with the butterscotch pudding. I am also going to attempt to make a pecan topping from a different recipe to make them like pecan sticky buns. I am very hopeful that these will turn out divine! 🙂
The pecan topping does sound divine, Rena! Let me know how it goes! 🙂
ok so I know this has been up for a while but I was reading some of the comments . And I wanted to post that someone asked if you can use instant pudding rather then the cook and serve, well for starters I made one yesterday with cook and serve and was amazing and nice and glazed, it went fast at my house so I made another today and accitently grabbed instant and well it isn’t glazed and it is deffinently dryer it still don’t taste bad but it just kinda clumped up and stayed at the bottom of the pan, and I had read that someone said they made it and it was dry well this is why. When you by instant pudding. All you do is add milk and you have pudding so your doing the same concept with adding the melted butter! Thought this may help answer ppls questions!
Thanks so much for sharing this helpful info, Heather!!
I’m excited to try these with Cinnamon, but I typically melt a stick of butter with 1 cup or brown sugar to give it more sauce. It works great, then I can just sprinkle the cinnamon with the butterscotch. Love putting pecans or walnuts on the bottom of the pan first too!
I love it with nuts, too – thanks for sharing!
Definitely DON”T use instant pudding. I’ve done that by mistake once and there was riot! Plus, I’ve half the recipe into a square pyrex casserole dish and they were great. Yes, it’s kind of a hassle to half the pudding mix but with just my husband and I we really can’t eat more then 3-4 each. I also hate to say but 24 rolls are too many. 18 works better and they don’t fall out of the bundt pan creating a huge mess. After making these for years they are a must for our families 4th of July weekend at our lodge. Like I said we had a riot when I used the wrong pudding. We also have two ovens and cook two bundt pans full. Great to see people still love these yummy rolls. Thank you for posting this 🙂
Thanks, Susie!
I made these this morning for a brunch party and they were excellent! Followed the instructions and ingredients to a tee. The rolls had risen out of the pan by morning but I just deflated them with a fork before baking and mine did not have any spill over in the oven. Great recipe!
Awesome. Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Dumb question– do you actually prepare the pudding or do you just sprinkle the powdered pudding?
Just sprinkle the powdered pudding!
I have been looking for this recipe for a year. I had always used a recipe like this except the pudding used was vanilla, not butterscotch. It cam from an old book in The Christmas Spirit series (one a year for, I think, 11 or 12 years). Anyway, this was always part of our traditional Christmas morning far, including Orange Julius (copycat) & scrambled eggs. I am so glad I found this- just popped it in the oven & can’t wait ’til Christmas morning. My daughter will be so excited-thank you!!!!
You’re welcome. Hope it turned out!
Hi!
I’m wondering if this could be a dessert for after dinner?
Put it together in the morning and let it sit for how many hours…8?
Thanks!
Yes, it could be a dessert! I would assume 8 hours would work as that is not far from an overnight rise in terms of time. They just need to rise before cooking!
Can this be made in a crockpot?
I’ve never tried this recipe in a crockpot. If you try it, let us know how it went!
I have made these twice in the last month. Each time I make them my rolls only rise slightly. What could possibly be going wrong??
are they defrosting all the way? or are they still frozen in the middle? i haven’t heard of that happening before – usually several hours or overnight is plenty of time for them to rise. i have another recipe for monkey bread here, if you’d like to give that a try instead…and there’s no rising involved! 🙂 https://livecrafteat.com/eat/easy-monkey-bread-recipe/
I had always made the version with refrigerated biscuit dough, but I wanted a late-night activity for my daughter’s slumber party, and didn’t think that recipe would do well sitting overnight. To make it somewhat more interactive, I had the girls dip the frozen dough balls in a cup of melted butter and then cinnamon sugar before tossing the balls in the bundt pan. They took turns sprinkling the pudding mix over the top, and then I covered it and let it sit overnight. I added an additional 1/2 cup of melted butter immediately before baking, popped it in the oven for 30 minutes, and it came out great. Would certainly make again.
that’s awesome! what a fun idea for a slumber party!!
I love this recipe, but only use 17 rolls. Perfect!
Awesome! I’ll try only 17 sometime!
I made this today and oh my super easy and delicious!! I did however only use about 18 rolls and I lined the bottom of the pan with walnuts. Will definitely make again
Wonderful. Glad you loved them Leah!
I used instant butterscotch pudding by mistake. What difference will it make?
I really have no idea…how did it turn out for you?
Since Coming across your recipe a few years ago his has become one of our family favorites. And it has earned the honored spot of Christmas morning breakfast. Thanks so much for the recipe. It does basically make itself!
So happy to hear this! Merry Christmas and enjoy the monkey bread! 🙂
My daughter made this for us this Christmas and it was a total hit! My husband always made a simple monkey bread using canned biscuits, but this recipe is way better!! Thanks for publishing it so it could get passed to us! Yum!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
My teenage daughters and their friends request for this ALWAYS! SO easy and SO yummy! Never any leftovers and always begging for more!
Awesome!!
Does the butterscotch pudding make it taste like butterscotch or more caramel like? I don’t care for butterscotch so I’m considering switching it up for vanilla pudding!
I personally don’t think it tastes too much like butterscotch…it’s more of a caramel imo. But if you really don’t like butterscotch you might detect it, so I’d try the vanilla pudding and see how that works out! Let me know!!