Friday, June 24, 2011

Adventures in Cooking: Granny's rolls

My Granny passed away this week, and so I thought this was a great time to share with you her recipe for rolls.  One of my favorite memories of Christmas is eating leftover turkey sandwiches on these rolls (my mom's family makes gumbo for Thanksgiving and turkey for Christmas.)

Granny cooked without recipes and so the first time I asked for this recipe, she told me what to do, then went home and realized she forgot a few ingredients and told me to throw the recipe away.  She made it later and actually measured the ingredients so I could have the recipe.  I included her original below, along with some tips.  I had never created any kind of bread before so I referred to Martha's Baking Handbook frequently for some tips.


Granny Rena Chauvin’s Rolls

1 stick margarine [I use butter]
1 cup milk
1 ¼ cup water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp salt

2 envelopes Rapid Rise Yeast [sometimes known as instant or fast rising]
2 eggs
6 to 7 cups flour

Warm mixture:
Melt 1 stick of margarine [butter] in large pot on low heat. Add 1 cup milk, 1 ¼ cup water, 1/3
cup sugar, 2 tsp salt. Stir and heat to 125 degrees.

In a large bowl [I put it in the Kitchen Aid mixer bowl] put 3 cups flour & rapid rise yeast. Mix well then add the warm mixture.

Mixing with the mixer add 2 eggs and keep mixing [I use the paddle attachment until it gets to hard to use.]. Gradually add 3 to 4 cups flour [here I switch to the dough hook attachment] until stiff dough is formed. [Yes, I know.  Is it 3 or 4 cups?  I think I've used 3.5 cups to be on the safe side.  Also the dough should be sticky, and not dry.]

Place the dough in a large greased bowl to rise until double in size.

[You want to pick a VERY large bowl -- I would assume that the dough is going to triple in size.  I also cover the bowl with saran wrap, which I also grease.  How will you know when it's done?  Martha recommends that you wait 90 minutes.]

Punch down dough and form into rolls and place in baking dish [I put them on a cookie sheet that I will use to bake them with to rise so there's no having to move them from one thing to another.]   Let them rise again [I just wait 90 minutes again] then bake in 375 degree oven until brown. About 20 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen rolls.

[For holidays, I make them in advance.  I cook them for 15 minutes and store in the freezer.  When Thanksgiving or whatever rolls around -- ha -- I heat them up for 10 to 15 min in a 375 oven.]

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