It has been so cold here, so naturally the way to warm up the house is to do some baking!  I had been to the store earlier in the day and saw a box of Monkey Bread in the freezer section.  I decided I could probably make a different version at home, so that’s exactly what I did.

I happened to have some frozen dough for rolls in the freezer, so I set them out to defrost until they were soft.  At that point, I combined some sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and a tiny bit of melted butter in a bowl and added the dough.  Mixing it around, it coated the pieces of dough with a cinnamon sugar mixture.

I sprayed a bundt cake pan with cooking spray and then layered the dough pieces inside.  Then I melted some butter and brown sugar in a saucepan with one of my favorite baking ingredients, pure vanilla bean paste, but you could add just some vanilla extract, if you don’t have bean paste on hand.  I cooked this on medium until it made a caramel like sauce (just heated through, not boiled).  Then I poured it over the top of the dough.

I heated the oven to 325 degrees and popped the pan in the oven to let it bake through.  Oh, my house smelled so good! I baked it for about 50 minutes.  Immediately after pulling it out of the oven, I flipped the bundt pan onto a cookie sheet and all the caramel sauces coated the pieces.  To finish off the bread, I microwaved some cream cheese frosting (maybe 1/4 cup) for 30 seconds until it was melted and I drizzled it on top of the bread.

Tada!  This is what I had.  Not the greatest picture, but I had to snap one before my kids walked in the door and devoured it.  It didn’t last long, but was thoroughly enjoyed by all.  I will definitely be making this again!

Since this was a thrown together kind of project, I don’t have exact measurements for you, but I would imagine it could be adjusted for your tastes.  I would think it would be really good to throw some diced apples in the mixture, too.

For the rolls:

• 2 small packages of Rhodes rolls
• 1/2 -3/4 cup white sugar
• cinnamon (sprinkle to coat)
• pumpkin pie spice (to taste)
• 2 tablespoons of butter melted

For the caramel sauce

• 1/2- 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tsp Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste (or vanilla)*

*Nielsen-Massey is by far my favorite vanilla and if you haven’t tried it in your baking, you are missing out! There is a noticeable difference in taste to my recipes when I use their vanilla.  You can order it online.

What’s your favorite way to warm up your house when it is an arctic tundra outside?