Easy Yeast Rolls Or Monkey Bread Recipes

Steps:

• The night or several hours before, grease and flour a 9 or 10 inch tube pan. Mix brown sugar and pudding mix together. Mix white sugar and cinnamon together. Place frozen dinner rolls in pan a layer at a time. Sprinkle brown sugar and pudding mix over first layer of rolls. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon mixture over the brown sugar and pudding mixture. Spread half the nuts and melted butter over first layer. Repeat with the next layer.
• Place on counter over night. Do not cover. Next morning bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 30 minutes. Let stand a few minutes and turn pan over onto serving platter.

Steps:

• In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. In a large bowl, combine sugar, egg, oil, salt, yeast mixture and 4 cups flour; beat on medium speed until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough., Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour., Punch down dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into four portions. Divide and shape each portion into 12 balls. Roll each ball into an 8-in. rope; tie into a loose knot. Tuck ends under. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Cover; let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350°., Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks.

Steps:

• Heat the water to between 105 and 115 degrees F.
• If working with kids, explain that this temperature will wake up the yeast but not kill it.
• Dissolve the yeast in the water in a large bowl.
• Stir in the sugar, oil, salt and egg.
• Stir in 1 cup of flour until smooth.
• This is officially known as a"sponge" since it does not have all the flour of the final dough.
• Cover with a dishcloth and set in a warm place (over a bowl of warm water, in a slightly warm oven, in the microwave beside a cup of warm water, etc.).
• Let rise for 15 minutes. NOTE: If the sponge is not bubbly and increased in volume, either the yeast was bad, the water was too hot, or the water was too cold). THROW IT AWAY - it will not make palatable bread! If you are sure that the water was the correct temperature (and you did not set the bowl to rise in a hot oven (smile)) get some new yeast.
• This is useful time for cleanup and setting up for kneading.
• Grease a square 9 inch pan.
• If you want to make monkey bread, use a ring pan or a bundt pan and do not grease it.
• Stir down the sponge (ooh and aah over how much it has grown first!) and add 1 1/2 cups flour.
• Blend until well mixed.
• Turn out onto a floured surface.
• Knead 3 minutes adding flour if the dough is sticky.
• If using the square pan, divide the dough into 16 pieces (good math exercise!), and shape quickly into balls.
• If making monkey bread, divide the dough into 32 pieces (more math) and shape quickly into balls.
• For the square pan, arrange the balls in the pan and smear tops with softened margarine.
• For the monkey bread, roll each ball in melted margarine before arranging the balls in the ring or bundt pan.
• Cover the pan with the dishcloth and set back in the warm place (described above).
• Let rise for 25 minutes (depending on the timing with kids, I have been successful with as little as 20 minutes and as long as 30.) Preheat oven to 425°F (move the pan first if that is where the dough is rising, of course).
• Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until light brown.
• Remove from pan to a rack or plate to cool.
• To make them even better (and more fattening), brush the tops with melted butter.
• If you made monkey bread, eat the bread like a monkey by pulling off chunks.
• The monkey bread is also excellent if you roll each dough ball in cinnamon sugar after rolling in margarine and before placing in the pan.
• This makes a good breakfast bread.

Steps:

• Place the frozen yeast rolls in a single layer on a platter, and thaw on the counter for 30 minutes. Cut in fourths.
• Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Spread the pecan pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 6-8 minutes. Cool completely.
• Spray angel food cake pan with cooking spray.
• Mix together 2/3 cup of granulated sugar and 1 Tbsp of ground cinnamon.
• Toss with the quartered rolls in a large plastic storage bag until evenly coated.
• Sprinkle 1/3 of the toasted pecans on the bottom of the pan.
• Layer half of the quartered rolls on top of the pecans in the pan.
• Sprinkle the first layer of rolls with 1/3 of the remaining pecan pieces.
• Layer the remaining quartered rolls on top.
• Sprinkle any leftover cinnamon and sugar over all.
• Top with the last 1/3 cup of toasted pecan pieces.
• On the stove top, melt the brown sugar, butter and heavy cream together over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook for 1 minute.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
• Pour evenly over the rolls in the pan. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise for 45 minutes.
• Bake at 350 °F for 35-40 minutes until golden. Rest for 5-10 minutes before carefully inverting onto a platter.