It Aint Easy Being Responsible to a Vast Internet Audience

 Everyone has their own Christmas eve routines and the Stoops family is no exception to this statement. Years ago, much of the night was taken up with stuffing stockings and putting all manner of Santa surprises together - bikes, strollers, scooters....you name it and we've probably spent a least one Christmas cursing over some incomprehensible instructions, in the hope of delighting a child's heart.

In our household, Christmas eve has also included putting together a pecan praline monkey bread so that it can sit on the counter all night before being baked for breakfast the next morning. In the 16 years since this tradition began there has only been one monkeybreadless Christmas morning. And here's what happened that year. I lovingly prepared the fixings, put the bundt pan on the counter, covered it with a dishcloth and went off to bed with visions of gooey sticky buns in my head. When it was time to come downstairs and heat up the oven, I glanced over to my covered culinary creation and noticed it didn't look quite as expectantly puffed up as usual. Upon careful inspection, it became obvious something had gone very wrong with the rolls used for this recipe because they were in the same compact, completely unrisen state as the night before. Hoping for a special oven miracle from God, I baked them anyway only to be greeted with now hot compact and completely unrisen rolls. So, no monkey bread for breakfast that morning. 

It's a great recipe to use when you have company. In fact, the first time I ever ate the rolls, I WAS the visitor. The summer before Brian turned two we were visiting with my friend Iris Bachmann, during the time she lived outside of Akron, Ohio. Iris is a woman who knows how to feed a crowd - often using recipes handed down from her mom, the school cafeteria lady. Iris' recipes are the kind that always turn out well. (Except if you use rolls that refuse to rise.)

All that said...I had my second ever cooking of the praline monkey bread disaster this morning. Imagine the horror when I began taking the rolls out of the pan only to realize they weren't going to fall out in their usually perfectly formed manner. Here I am, camera in hand, waiting to enthrall my subscribers with visual proof of my amazing culinary skill and I'm faced with what looks like a pile of goo. Oh well, at least they rose properly. 

(This is the night before so it's OK for the rolls to look un-risen)

(Ready to cook)