Oh, snap! (Cinnamon Caramel Monkey Bread)

I haven't posted in a LONG time.  Work's been so busy and we took about a month hiatus from actually using our monthly meal plan.  We'd cook here and there but with me traveling to Bismarck for work and Brent being gone a couple of weekends it was really hard to keep up with.  

I decided to make some caramel rolls from a recipe I got from a girl I work(ed) with.  Angie's since transferred to a different corporate store, but man do I miss working with her.  These monkey bread style caramel rolls were just one of the things she'd brought to one of our work potlucks.  She would also bake cakes for people's birthdays.  Yes, she's totally that awesome.

Anyway, last night I had some time on my hands before I was going to start getting ready to go out for a going away party for another friend and I started on these.  I fixed them up and then set them in the oven (no heat) to rise.  I had originally thought that I had let them rise too long, but oh. my. goodness.  They turned out perfect this morning!!

What you'll need:

2 loaves of frozen bread dough (thawed)  

          **I used 3 loaves since they usually come in bags of three.  You can find them in your grocer's freezer section.

1 stick of butter (not margarine)

1 lightly packed cup of brown sugar

1 cup vanilla ice cream

Cinnamon

Sugar

Once the dough is thawed, break it into pieces and roll it in a bowl with the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Put it into a slightly greased pan (DO NOT use an air bake pan).

This is pretty tedious, so I break them into several pieces, throw it in the bowl and then roll them around by hand. Your nails will be packed with dough by the time you're done with this.  :)

Let the dough rise.  I let it rise for about 12 hours.  This is totally not necessary as they were practically spilling from the pan by the time I got to them, but like I said, they were amazingly perfect.  Light and fluffy.. Sticky and sweet.  They just have to rise enough so they reach the top of the pan, or even a little bit more.

After the rolls have risen, take your brown sugar, butter and ice cream and put it in a pot over medium/low heat.  Stir until melted and continue stirring until boiling.  Pour caramel sauce over the rolls.  Careful, I've got three huge burn marks from where I accidentally got some of the boiling caramel on my skin.  Whoops.

Bake in the oven at 350˚F for about 20 minutes.  I put a large flat pan under the other pan so when and if the sauce boils over, it won't stick to the bottom of my oven.

Let cool slightly and enjoy.  These turned out so amazing.  The pieces at the top where the caramel is slightly over-baked is my favorite :)  Brent says his favorite is the ooey-gooey stuff.  Clearly we're perfect for each other ;)