Caramel Rolls Using Frozen Bread Dough

Recipe:  http://www.publicradio.org/columns/prairiehome/sundberg/2012/07/23.shtml

***Mrs. Sundberg found that somewhere along the way, 'cook & serve' pudding was replaced by 'instant' pudding in this recipe. I did do a second batch by adding 1/4 cup of milk to make the sauce pouring consistency, but by using the cook & serve pudding, the amount of 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon of milk is correct, and she has edited the recipe in the link above to reflect the change. Either way, I had success with the instant on the second batch, and they were delicious!


I have never baked anything that required making dough from scratch. It seems like a lot of time invested in something that may or may not turn out, considering I was the one deciding if the warm water for the yeast was warm enough/too warm. Fear would sum it up. It's an area in which I have no experience. Maybe I'm over-thinking it, but I'm just not sure I could make it happen. So with Mrs. Sundberg's recipe last week, the hard part of the equation for me has been taken away. Up until today, my only experience with yeast was making the pizza dough packet that came in the Appian Way pizza-in-a-box kit from the grocery.

The bread dough part worked great, but the caramel sauce gave me a problem. Mine was way too thick to pour, per the instructions, but I said I wasn't going to change things, and since everything else was a go, I made them anyway, spooning the caramel sauce over each roll. The flavor was great, but the caramel didn't melt as I was hoping it would. I was able to spread it around when they came out of the oven, and that worked okay, but it wasn't the pourable quality that I expected. 

My Mr. took most of them to work, and his email this morning read: The guys are busy stuffing themselves with rolls and coffee and making yummy noises. That is about it for conversation right now, and that would be a YES, they like them.  They have volunteered to continue to eat all of your evidence until your recipes are perfect. They are real Team Players. (Kind of like I am Diana Ross, and they are my Surpremes!) They are an incredible trio, working hard to help protect our country. They're tough, no-nonsense, ballistic missile men on the outside, but soft, tender-hearted sweeties on the inside.

 But back to the rolls. The bread dough came in a package of 3, (Why do they do that? Why not 4?) so I had one more loaf. Armed with another box of pudding, I tried to decide what to adjust to make it right. I thought maybe not using all the pudding, but instead, I upped the milk to 1/4 cup. Everything else stayed the same, but I didn't cook it for the minute per the directions, I just melted the butter, stirred the brown sugar in until it dissolved, then stir, stir, stirred in the pudding and milk to make sure everything was blended well. Bingo! Smooth, pourable caramel goodness. Since I only had one loaf of bread, I put the pieces of dough into a smaller pan, and didn't use all the caramel sauce, but I wanted to make sure the proportions were right for the recipe of using two loaves of bread dough. And I need to ask Mrs. Sundberg about this...because I know she's an expert in the kitchen.

I did use a blade to cut the dough, each loaf in half, then each half in thirds, and then I cut those sections in half as well, giving me 12 rolls per loaf. Reasonable portion control, unless you factor in wanting to eat 3 or 4 of them at a time. They are very tasty and the yeast component comes through loud and clear. My Supremes already know that (part) of the remade version will be on its way tomorrow, and looking in the oven door as they bake, I see caramel roll success. I don't imagine there will be much talking while they are eating them tomorrow, and by the time that caramel roll coma wears off, it'll be a whole new day. 

Thank you, Mrs, Sundberg. :-)