Fun Fact: Today is National Monkey Day! Celebrate by making a sticky-sweet overnight favorite for your Santa Breakfast Table: Monkey Bread! What is Monkey Bread you ask? A traditional cinnamon-y Christmas morning starter the kids will love! A Santa Breakfast Table? You bet! While Mom and Dad prep for present-time, the kidlets can enjoy a bit of breakie all laid out fun and festive.
On Christmas Eve, all adorned in our new Christmas jammies, a family tradition started by the “Jamma-Gramma” that we’ve carried on in her honor since she passed…John and I break out the big bundt pan and monkey around to make this sweet breakfast treat that will sit perfectly on our Santa Breakfast table.
Set a fun table fast with candy canes in personalized mugs + “vintage” felt santa napkin holders! Jessi and I got a kick out of the fact that these are called 80’s VINTAGE now…(See the HOW-TO to make your own HERE…no glue gun required!) Include individual cereal boxes (which are always a special treat), and either monkey bread and/or cranberry orange mini-muffins! Tossing a few tangerines in a pedestal bowl adds a centerpiece to the mix + a colorful pop of delicious nutrition. While the kids are eating, Chris and I were able to get lights and music going, make much needed coffee, and prepare for the big morning.
A few of the marvelous things about Monkey Bread, are that it’s easy to make and let rise overnight….then pop it in the oven for Christmas Morning and the kitchen smells AMAZING. A little backstory on these buns: my friend Betty Jo sent me the recipe for what we Canadians call “Sticky Buns”, as a BIG help for our first Christmas morning with the family all together. It holds quite a bit of senitmental value, as it truly did provide me with a wonderful activity for the kids and made our first Christmas special.
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon cinnamon
One 4 ounce package instant butterscotch pudding mix
18 – 24 frozen dough rolls
1/2 cup raisins, and/or walnuts if desired (We prefer raisins)
1.5 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
Night Before:
1. Lightly grease a 12-cup fluted tube pan with cooking spray.
2. Arrange biscuits in pan, adding raisins, and sprinkling pudding mix among the biscuit pieces. In small bowl, mix brown sugar and butter; and pour over biscuit pieces. Loosely cover the pan opening with a damp tea towel, and allow to rise overnight.
Next Morning:
1. Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate; pull apart to serve. Serve warm.
A story told throughout the years, is of our first Christmas when John was about 6 years old: we made our Monkey Bread and set it out for the night. When the other kids came excitedly downstairs looking for gifts, John and I ran to the kitchen, peeked under the tea towel covering our Monkey Bread to see that the dough and risen over the pan, achieving better than expected results! John looked at me with wide eyes and said, “THAT IS THE BIGGEST BAGEL I HAVE EVER SEEN!” This story still makes me smile to this day, and is told often during our “Santa Breakfast”. What special Christmas morning traditions and tales do you share with your family?
