Holiday Overnight Monkey Bread
Nicole Van Hoey
Every Thanksgiving, my kids wake us up and I turn on the oven to finish the cinnamon roll bread I started the night before. It became a tradition in our house quickly and has morphed into a favorite holiday breakfast treat. But it actually started as a tribute of sorts to my Italian grandparents. My grandmother made an angel-food-pan cinnamon roll completely from scratch for our Sunday visits, and it's one of those strong family memories that you never shake. This roll, or monkey bread to Southerners, is nowhere near the talent or taste of my gram's, but it's dairy free, and it fits into our busy days. I'm adding it to this year's Easter community cookbook because my gram---the last of my living grandparents---died in 2016, and her birthday is just a few weeks shy of this spring holiday. I made my dairy-free version first for Memorial Day in honor of my WWII-serving grandfather, and this year I'll make it for Easter to remember my gram. You can try any combination of flavors you'd like, and you can go as boxed-mix or from-scratch as you'd like, too. My first version of this treat used dry butterscotch pudding instead of plain white sugar, and it's still my kids' favorite version. In a pinch, I've even torn off pizza dough into balls when I didn't have frozen rolls premade (or prepurchased).