Easy Overnight Caramel Rolls
These overnight caramel rolls are prepped ahead and then baked up fresh in the morning. Perfect for special occasions and holidays! Read Notes section before assembling to choose a method that works best for you.
Servings Rolls
Equipment
- tube pan do not use an angel food cake pan with a removable bottom; the caramel sauce will ooze out of it!
Ingredients
- 16-18 frozen raw roll dough balls like Rhode's rolls
- 1 3.5-ounce box vanilla or butterscotch cook & serve pudding mix NOT instant pudding mix
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar light or dark
- ½ cup butter (1 stick)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon optional
- ½ cup chopped pecans optional
- nonstick spray, or butter for greasing pan
Instructions
- **See the rising tips in the notes section below. At the risk of overcomplicating a very simple recipe, you can make these a few different ways and one or the other might be better for you depending on your schedule! Read through them and you can choose to make them as written here in the instructions (you'll want to assemble as late in the evening as possible) or choose an alternate method in the notes.
- Grease a Bundt or tube pan thoroughly with non-stick spray, butter or vegetable shortening. Do not use an angel food cake pan with a removable bottom; the sauce will ooze out of it!
- Place your frozen dough balls in the pan.
- Sprinkle on your pecans (if using). Then sprinkle on the dry pudding mix over the rolls (ignore pudding package instructions, you're just using the dry powder).
- In a heat-safe bowl, warm butter until mostly melted, about 30 seconds. Whisk in brown sugar (and cinnamon, if using) and then heat for 30 seconds more, or until melted completely. Whisk vigorously until smooth, heating in additional short intervals if needed. If your butter and brown sugar are separated, just keep whisking and it will come together.
- Pour butter and sugar mixture evenly over rolls.
- Cover with a tea towel and leave out at room temperature overnight. The rolls will thaw out at rise and the other ingredients will begin to blend into what will become your caramel sauce.
- In the morning, preheat the oven to 350℉. If you have a more shallow bundt pan and your rolls have risen over the top of your pan, you may want to gently guide them back in. You might also want to place your bundt pan on top of a baking sheet just in case it bakes over.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until rolls are golden brown on top. If the very top rolls are getting too brown at the end (they often do), cover with foil.
- Remove from oven, allow to cool for just a couple minutes, then flip the rolls out onto a serving dish and scrape the remaining caramel from the pan to top them. If you let them cool too long, the caramel will start to solidify and they'll be tricky to remove. If you don't have a serving dish large enough, you can just line a baking sheet with parchment or foil. Serve immediately, as the caramel thickens upon standing.
Notes
Rising Options
As you might already know, Rhodes rolls can vary in how long they take to rise, especially considering the temperature of the room. While this is a popular overnight recipe, after making them for years, I've realized that often times recipes like these produce over-risen rolls. If you make them right before you go to bed and bake them immediately upon waking, chances are they're getting 8+ hours minimum of rising. While they're still totally delicious a little over-risen and covered in caramel, I do think they're even better if they're baked a little sooner than the overnight rise usually produces. So I've experimented a lot with overnight rises that can still produce a perfect roll. I've found 2 alternate options that help and you can consider either one depending on your schedule.-
- Pre-Freeze. Do this option if you want to have these completely prepped so you have zero prep the morning you want to eat them. This one allows you to prep even a day or two ahead of time. I recommend this if you're not planning on going to bed late or not planning on baking them very early in the morning. Assemble rolls as directed a day or two ahead of time. Instead of leaving rolls out to rise late at night cover the pan well and place back in the freezer. They can stay in there for up to 2-3 days. The night before you want to eat them, take your frozen pan from the freezer and place it on the counter right before you go to bed (as late as possible). The whole frozen pan will have to come up to temperature before the rolls start to rise so this extends the process, giving you a little extra wiggle room before they need to be in the oven in the morning.
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- Thaw your Rolls first . Do this option if you want to have a little more control over what time you eat your rolls, or if you want to bake them later in the day. This is still super easy, it just requires assembling the morning of- this is how the original Rhodes recipe does it. Take 16-18 rolls and place on a plate, or in a food safe container, etc. and place in the fridge the night before you want to bake them. Overnight they will thaw, but they won't rise. In the morning (or 1.5-2 hours before you want to serve them) spray your pan with nonstick spray and add half of the pecans. If desired, you can cut your rolls in half, making smaller pieces (I'm still undecided if I like them full size or cut!) Toss thawed bread dough balls in the pudding mix to coat and add to pan, along with remaining pecans and pudding mix. Melt your sugar and butter together until it's warm and smooth and syrupy (1-2 minutes) and whisk until smooth. Pour caramel over rolls. Let rise until double in size, this takes about 2 hours for me, or only 1 hour if I've cut the rolls in half and use the proofing mode in my oven). Bake as directed. This is a great option if you want to have your rolls ready at a more specific time, and especially if you want to serve them later in the day. *If making for a holiday morning, you could also put your rolls in the fridge to thaw early in the morning the day before, then assemble completely as directed the night before you want to eat them and place back in fridge. Pull pan out in the morning and let them rise until double in size before baking.
Nutrition
Serving: 1roll, Calories: 203kcal, Carbohydrates: 26g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 25mg, Sodium: 133mg, Potassium: 30mg, Fiber: 0.4g, Sugar: 14g, Vitamin A: 180IU, Vitamin C: 0.04mg, Calcium: 14mg, Iron: 0.2mg
Calories: 203kcal
Cost: 10
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