Lemon Monkey Bread – Bakerlady

Every monkey bread recipe I’ve ever seen is made with butter and brown sugar resulting in a caramel covered pull apart bread. This recipe intrigued me because of its main ingredient. Lemon. Lemon? Yes indeed. It is a bright fresh citrus bread drizzled with butter, lemony sugar and a sweet glaze. Lemon is so vibrant and clean. With the beautiful powdery snow around here lately, this monkey bread seemed a perfect complement to the fresh white landscape. This bread looks and tastes like you slaved away making it, in fact, it is so quick and easy you won’t believe it. But absolutely delicious.

This monkey bread is sweet and tart, moist and warm, crusty and soft all together. Ooooh it is so good.

The base for this sweet treat is Rhodes Dinner Rolls. Let them thaw until not frozen, but still cold.

Then, cut in half and place in a greased (I used butter) baking dish.

Drizzle with melted butter. Mmmmm. You know how I love butter.

Then we’re going to zest a lemon.

And mix that zest with some regular granulated sugar. Which infuses the sugar with the lemon flavor. Look at those gorgeous flecks of bright yellow lemon!

Sprinkle half the lemon sugar over the rolls and allow to rise until double. They are going to get nice and fluffy and the lemon sugar will essentially dissolve into the bread as it rises. Yum!

When all puffed up nicely, sprinkle the other half of your lemon sugar on top of the rolls and then bake.

Remove from the oven when nice and golden, slide out of the pan onto your serving platter and drizzle with a little lemon glaze.

Pull apart and enjoy!

Warm, crusty on the outside, soft and perfectly lemony on the inside! Dee-licious!

The lemon sugar gets a little caramelized with the lemon and is just amazing around the edges. Oh buddy. That’s the good stuff.

12 Rhodes dinner rolls, thawed but still cold
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Cut rolls in half and place in a greased 9×13″ pan.
2. Drizzle with the melted butter.
3. Mix lemon zest and sugar together in a small bowl. Sprinkle HALF of the lemon sugar mixture over the rolls. Cover and let raise till doubled.
4. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from pan.
5. Combine glaze ingredients. Drizzle over rolls while still warm.