Holiday Family Tradition: My Grandmother's Soft Dinner Rolls

One of the most important items on our holiday dinner table is a big basket of homemade soft dinner rolls.  It just doesn’t seem like the holidays without them.  My brothers…and as the family has grown, their sons…usually grab at least two when the basket makes its first round of the table.  I have always been amused and gratified by this.  There are of course always plenty…but I’m happy that they love something I make so much.

 

When I was growing up, both of my grandmothers served dinner rolls at the holidays.  I have no memory of the homemade rolls of my paternal grandmother.  I am told she was an amazing cook, but by the time I was old enough to be aware of—or remember—the food at her table, she had turned to convenience fare (instant potatoes, purchased dinner rolls, etc).  But I’m sure her homemade rolls were delicious.  Apparently my older brother’s mantra at her table was “more rolls, more rolls” (I am told that mine was “more butter, more butter”...  I know everyone is shocked). 

 

My maternal grandmother's rolls—that she made until she was no longer able to stand up to cook—were the stuff of legends.  Soft…slightly sweet…buttery….and light…  I remember walking into her kitchen—filled with the amazing sights and smells of the holidays—being greeted always by several towel-covered pans of rising rolls sitting on the counter.  I would catch a glimpse of the rolls themselves when she pulled back the towels to check their progress.  I loved the way they looked—puffy clouds of buttered dough, shimmering in the November or December light coming in through the windows.  Sometimes the rolls were in muffin tins—with three little balls each—for cloverleaf rolls.  And other times the puffed folds of Parker House rolls appeared when she pulled back the towels.  She must have made pan rolls (sometimes called pull-apart rolls) too, but for some reason I can’t conjure up a visual memory of those.

When I began to contribute to the holiday table, rolls (and pies) were one of the first things I made.  I have made various recipes for rolls over the years—trying out different ones from newly acquired cookbooks…or the latest magazine…in my early days as a cook (young cooks always seem to want to make something new and different).  But at some point during the past twenty five years or so since I started cooking professionally, I returned to the recipe that my grandmother made.

Because she was a generous cook, there are multiple copies of her roll recipe—in her own hand—floating around the family recipe files.  They are all in one of two forms:  the original “Jo’s Rich Rolls”…and then in a later, shakier hand, “Jo’s No-Knead Rich Rolls.”  The rolls are identical except there is a much smaller quantity of flour in the no-knead version.  She claimed to prefer this later version, saying it made much lighter rolls.  But I admit I didn’t like them as well.  The texture, while very open and porous, was a bit more firm...and not as pleasing to me as the soft, fine-grained texture of the original kneaded version.  I think it is possible that she was getting tired…and that the no-knead version was just as delicious without requiring the physical exertion of kneading.

If you follow my blog, you might recognize this recipe.  It is a fantastic basic dough that I use for all kinds of preparations.  When I make cinnamon rolls, I add a bit of cinnamon and orange zest to the dough, roll it out and fill it with cinnamon and sugar.  And I have posted two filled breakfast loaves—one, a Christmas wreath, filled with pistachios and dried cranberries…and the other, a twisted braid filled with chocolate and almonds.  In both these recipes I add a bit of spice to the dough too.   I don’t know if my grandmother ever did any of these things.  But it is possible…and I’m certain she would approve.  She was a creative and adventurous cook. 

For some reason I have never made my grandmother’s rolls in their cloverleaf or Parker House form.  I usually make pan rolls or crescent rolls.  I have never taken a poll, but I think the pan rolls are the ones my family prefers.  And while the crescent rolls are a show stopper in terms of looks (and seem to hold a special place in the hearts of many), I think I prefer the pan rolls too.  From a cooking standpoint, they are more efficient.  Using only two 9-inch square pans (that can be stacked, if necessary), they take up much less counter space (which is at a premium at the holidays) while they are proofing.  In this form, the baked rolls seem to keep a bit longer, too (and make cute mini slider buns for that roast turkey the next day…).

No matter what shape you choose, you can always bake them ahead and freeze them.  I don’t think my grandmother ever did this, but I find that when I’m preparing the whole meal that making the rolls ahead makes my life a lot easier.  Just bake, cool and wrap well.  Pan rolls shouldn’t be pulled apart…just wrap the whole square.  Crescents can be packed on sheets and wrapped…or tucked into freezer bags.  On the day you will be serving them, let them thaw—still wrapped (this will conserve their moisture)—at room temperature.  When ready to heat them, remove the plastic and wrap them in foil.   To heat, place them in a 350° to 375° oven for 10 or 15 minutes—about the length of time it takes you to carve the roast and put the sides into serving dishes. 

This year my only job for Thanksgiving dinner was to make bread.  So I made my rolls the day of the feast….and made some cornbread and sweet potato biscuits too.  I have always thought these two quick breads would be just the thing on a Thanksgiving table…alongside a basket of yeast rolls of course.  So I would have a nice variety of shapes, I decided to make the rolls crescent shaped.  I was so glad I did—I thought they were beautiful together. 

I am including instructions for both the pan rolls and the crescent rolls.  I haven’t looked at my grandmother’s recipe cards in a while, but I’m pretty sure there aren’t any specific instructions for forming the rolls (she would have said something like “form the rolls into the desired shapes”).  If you prefer cloverleaf or Parker House style rolls, instructions abound in cookbooks and on the internet.

As I have looked at—and compared—recipes for soft dinner rolls over the years, I have found that they are generally pretty similar.  Most people probably would be able to find such a recipe in their grandmother’s or great grandmother’s recipe collections. The quantities of the ingredients in your family’s recipe might vary a bit from mine…but mostly they are all slightly sweet—and rich with butter, milk and eggs—making them fitting for a special holiday meal.  But if you don’t have such a recipe in your family…or a memory of a basket of homemade soft dinner rolls on your family’s table, I hope you will give this recipe a try.   And I hope that, like my family, everyone will love them so much that they will ask for them again next year….and the year after that…until they eventually become part of your family’s holiday traditions too.

My Grandmother’s Soft Dinner Rolls

(Jo’s Rich Rolls)

4 1/2 t. active dry or instant yeast 

1/4 c. warm water

1 c. milk

1/3 c. unsalted butter

1/2 c. sugar

1 1/2 t. salt

2 egg

5 to 6 c. all-purpose flour

Place the warm water in a large bowl and add the yeast.  While the yeast is softening, heat the milk until it is steaming and bubbles are beginning to form around the edge of the pan.  Remove the milk from the heat and add the butter.  When the butter is melted, add the sugar and salt.  Add the warm milk/sugar mixture (if it is hot—over 115°—let it cool a bit before proceeding) to the softened yeast and whisk to combine.  Whisk in the eggs.  Add 2 cups of the flour whisk until smooth.  Gradually stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes).  Place the dough in a buttered bowl.  Turn the dough to coat with butter and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise until doubled in bulk (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours).

When the dough is fully risen, knock it back and place it on a lightly floured surface.  Divide the dough into 32 equal pieces and form into balls.  

Divide the balls of dough between two buttered 9-inch square baking pans.  

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk (about 45 minutes to an hour). 

Bake the rolls at 375° until puffed and golden brown—about 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter.  Makes 32 rolls (recipe is easily halved to make 16—use 1 9-inch square pan)

Note: 

• To make crescent rolls, divide the risen dough in half and form two balls.  Roll each ball out into a thin 16-inch round.  Brush round with some (1 to 1 1/2 T.) melted butter.  Cut each round into 16 wedges.  Roll each wedge into a crescent, curving slightly and making sure the point is tucked under so the rolls won’t unroll while they rise or bake.  Place the rolls 2 inches apart on 2 parchment-lined sheets.  Proof & bake.

• To minimize the work on the day of your gathering, you can make the roll dough the day before.  Let the dough rise and punch it down as usual.  Form the dough into a ball and return it to the bowl.  Cover it with plastic and put it in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours.  Take it out of the fridge and proceed as directed in the recipe for forming, proofing/rising and baking.  Besides being a time saver, making the dough ahead makes it so that the dough is much easier to handle for rolling and forming into crescents.

Printable Version

Applesauce Spice Cake for my Mother's Birthday...with Two Different Frostings

A few years ago I posted the recipe for my father's favorite birthday cake on what would have been his 75th birthday. Regular visitors might wonder why I have never posted my mother's preferred cake. The reason for this is that my mother doesn't really have a specific favorite. I associate white cake with butterscotch frosting with her birthdays from when I was a kid. But I don't think that this is really her favorite cake. It is true that the butterscotch frosting is one of her favorite things, and probably her most frequently requested frosting, but more often than not she surprises me with her choice of cake. This year when I asked what she would like to have she requested an applesauce cake.

I love applesauce cake. It falls into the same class of cakes as pumpkin (as well as zucchini, carrot, and banana) in that it is reliably moist and flavorful. And like pumpkin and carrot cakes, it traditionally includes a healthy dose of the autumn- and holiday-appropriate spices (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, and sometimes ginger) that everyone seems to love so much. All of these kinds of cakes are friendly and versatile—they can be dressed up into frosted layer cakes for birthdays...or left plain and served as an everyday dessert or as a simple accompaniment to an afternoon cup of coffee or tea. 

I even had a good recipe for applesauce cake at the ready. I developed it a few years ago using the recipe my mom made when I was growing up (from an old cookbook of my mother's called Mary Meade's Country Cookbook...by Ruth Ellen Church...see note) as my starting point. Not only is it a delicious cake, but it goes particularly well with cream cheese frosting (which I know my mom likes) and would allow me to get through the year without having to prepare any butterscotch frosting.

I am always happy when I don't have to make that frosting. It isn't that I don't like it. It is in fact quite delicious and goes well with white and yellow cake...as well as spice cake. I have even heard of serving it with chocolate cake, which frankly sounds fantastic since the frosting is very rich and sweet and would be served well by the bitter edge of a good chocolate cake. It is actually a classic frosting...and a southern favorite. Sometimes called caramel...or penuche...frosting, I have never heard it called butterscotch frosting by any family other than my own. But since it is rich with butter and brown sugar, it counts as butterscotch in my book. 

Despite its deliciousness, this frosting is a bit of a thorn in my side. It is an ostensibly simple recipe (simplified from versions that require the use of a candy thermometer and the making of a sugar syrup) with rather vague instructions.  One is led to believe that nothing could be easier than making this frosting, when in fact making it is fraught with opportunities for failure ranging from a frosting that refuses to set up (and slides right off of the cake), to one that will suddenly turn into an unusable, cement-like mass. I have always intended to seek out a true recipe for a caramel or penuche frosting (made with the exacting specifications of a candy thermometer), but the fact of the matter is, this is the recipe that my mother loves, so this is the one I want to make for her. And as it happens, it is the one she requested to go with her applesauce cake this year. 

And I have to admit, it was a smashing combination. Everyone...but most especially my mother...really enjoyed it. So I am including the recipe in my post...with instructions that are as exact as I can make them. But I am also including a recipe for the cream cheese frosting that I love to serve on this cake. I think the cake would probably be pretty fine with a plain vanilla buttercream too.

Finally, because I have a preference for single layer cakes that are wide and low, I am giving the recipe in the form that I usually make it—that is, in a quantity that is perfect for a single layer, 10-inch round. If you want to make a two layer cake (for a birthday, for example), you will need to multiply the recipe by one and one half and bake it in two 9-inch layers. The frosting recipes will similarly need to be multiplied by one and one half. 

The cake was almost completely devoured at my mother's party. It was so good that I prepared it again so I could post it here (and so I could have more!). It is a perfect cake for autumn and if you make it, I think you will love it...no matter which frosting you choose.

(Note on why Mary Meade's cookbook is written by Ruth Ellen Church. From the Chicago Tribune Oct 3, 2001: "Mary Meade was the pen name used by five food editors of the Chicago Tribune from 1930 to 1974. Ruth Ellen Church was the longest tenured food editor, from 1936 to 1974. She published recipes, books and booklets under her own name as well as the Mary Meade pen name. When Church retired, so did Mary Meade." My mother's book was published in 1964...and I'm guessing many of my most beloved childhood tastes come from this book. I used to love to look at the pictures in this book.)

Applesauce Spice Cake

240 g (2 c.) all-purpose flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. ground cloves

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. allspice

170 g. (3/4 c. or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

300 g. (1 1/2 c.) sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

366 g. (1 1/2 c.) unsweetened applesauce

1 t. vanilla

Grease a 10-inch round cake pan, line with a round of parchment and grease the parchment.  Flour the pan.  Set aside.  Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.  

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy, stopping the mixer once or twice to scrape down the sides.  This will take 3 to 5 minutes at medium-high speed, depending on the ambient temperature of the room.  

Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition.  Increase the speed to medium-high and briefly beat until the mixture lightens in color and expands in volume.  Fold in the dry ingredients (by hand or on the lowest speed with the paddle attachments) alternately with the applesauce (add the vanilla with the first half of the applesauce), beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. 

 Two 9-inch layers (1 1/2 times the recipe), ready for the oven...

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.  Bake in a preheated 350° oven until golden, springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean—about 35 to 45 minutes.  Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.  Loosen the sides of the cake by running a thin knife around the edge of the pan.  Turn the cake out of the pan.  

Cool the cake on a wire rack.  Frost with Maple Cream Cheese or Butterscotch Frosting.  Serves 12.

Variation:  This recipe makes a beautiful layer cake.  Make 1 1/2 times the recipe and bake in 2 9-inch layers (they will take about 5 minutes less time to bake than the large 10-inch cake).  You will also need to multiply the frosting recipe by 1 1/2 so you will have enough to fill in between the layers.

Printable Version

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

100 g. (7 T.) butter, room temperature

100 g. (1/2 c.) packed golden brown sugar

85 ml. (6 T.) real maple syrup

8 oz. cream cheese, cut into 8 cubes

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with the brown sugar until smooth.  With the mixer running, drizzle in the maple syrup.  Increase the speed to medium-high/high and beat until very light and fluffy—5 minutes or so (the color of the mixture will become a very pale beige).  

Add the cream cheese and beat until the frosting is totally smooth and fluffy.   

Note: 

• Cream cheese brands vary widely in texture. If yours is stiff/firm straight out of the fridge, let it sit at room temperature until it becomes malleable. I use Kraft's Philadelphia, which seems to always be fairly malleable at refrigerator temperature. 
• This recipe makes a very light and fluffy frosting. If you prefer a denser, more traditional cream cheese frosting (with maple), use the one from my Chocolate Gingerbread post. 

(Recipe adapted from Ottolenghi, The Cookbook, by Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi)

Printable Version 

My Mom's Butterscotch Frosting

1 stick butter (4 oz.)

1 c. packed dark brown sugar (200 g.)

1/4 c. milk (60 g.)

1 3/4 to 2 c. (170 to 225 g.) sifted powdered sugar

Place the butter in a medium sauce pan and melt over moderate heat.  Add the brown sugar.  Bring the mixture to a boil over moderate to moderately high heat, stirring to make sure it doesn't scorch.  Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add the milk and return the mixture to the boil.  Remove from the heat and transfer to the bowl of a mixer; cool to room temperature. 

Add 1 3/4 c./170 g. of the powdered sugar to the cooled syrup and mix using the paddle attachment until the sugar is absorbed.  Beat briefly.  If the mixture isn't thick enough to spread, add the remaining powdered sugar a spoonful at a time, beating until thick enough to spread.  Use immediately—the frosting will continue to set up as it sits.

Notes: 

• You must sift the powdered sugar or you will have lumps in the finished frosting.
• The syrup must be cool or you will end up adding too much powdered sugar and the frosting will suddenly set up like cement (much swearing will ensue). 
• You must use the frosting immediately when it is ready. It should be soft and spreadable when you start. DO NOT LET IT SIT FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME once it is ready. Get it on the cake as quickly as you are able (have everything ready to go...cake on the platter, spatulas/palette knifes/etc.). Put it where you want it...swirling it attractively as you go. It is unlikely you will be able to go back over frosted areas and add decorative swirls (unless you are experienced and fast). This frosting crystallizes and sets up into a (delicious) brown sugar fudge very quickly...failure to get it out of the bowl and onto the cake quickly will result in much frustration/bad language/etc.

(Recipe adapted from "Quick Caramel Frosting" in Good Housekeeping Cookbook edited by Dorothy B. Marsh, copyright 1955)

Printable Version

German Chocolate Cake for my Dad's Birthday

Every year when we were growing up my mother made a special cake for each of us on our birthday. My Dad's cake of choice was always German Chocolate Cake...not a fancy bakery version, but the one on the back of the "German's Sweet Chocolate" package. As a kid I hated this cake and was always a little miffed that on an occasion when I could reasonably expect a big slice of cake, it was a cake I didn't want to eat. It took a while for me to make peace with coconut, but these days, I would be more than willing to have a slice. I'm not sure my Dad ever knew I finally learned to enjoy his cake...he didn't live long enough even to celebrate his 56th birthday. Today would have been his 75th. I have not made this cake in a while, but this year, in recognition of his special day, I decided to make one.


My mother's well-used copy of the recipe



I am pleased that I have this place—my blog—to honor him with his cake, because even though it has been many years since his passing, I miss him still.  I don't think it matters how old you are when you lose a parent...or how much time passes from the moment they cease to inhabit this world....the place they occupied in your life remains empty.

I should probably try and describe my Dad for you, but I don't think I will—at least not in the ordinary way one describes a person. Although he was a person who was highly esteemed—both personally and professionally—any description I could give here would still be inadequate. What is important to me is that he was my Dad—something no one else can be.

When I was a kid there was a skit on Sesame Street about a little boy who had been separated from his mother. In the skit the child is crying inconsolably as the detectives on the case try to get him to give a good description of her so they can find her. All he can tell them is that his mother is the most beautiful woman in the world. So they dutifully bring a parade of the most beautiful women in the world for him to see. All the while the child continues to shake his head sadly. I don't remember how it happens, but his mother finally appears on the scene. When she does, it is clear she is not the most beautiful woman in the world. Those who had been trying to find her for the child are stunned...but he is elated.

So, if someone were to ask me to describe my Dad in a few brief words, I would be tempted to say that he was the smartest, strongest man in the world. It is doubtful that a team of detectives could find him given such a description.....but I would know him anywhere.

Happy Birthday, Dad.