Mom’s Make Ahead Rolls

I don’t know where my mom got this incredible roll recipe, but it’s my favorite.  Not only does it turn out these lovely, delicious rolls, it’s the only yeast bread recipe I have never screwed up.  Well, okay, I screwed it up once, but that’s only because I was too busy refereeing a squabbling match between a couple of my kids and wasn’t paying enough attention to the cooking.  So, it doesn’t count.

Mom’s Make Ahead Rolls

Heat together: 2 c. milk, 1/2 c. shortening, 2 t. salt, 1/2 sugar until shortening is melted. You can do this in a sauce pan or be lazy like me and just nuke it in a big bowl.

Add: 2 beaten eggs

Dissolve 2 T. yeast in 1/4 c. water and add to the egg mixture.

Beat in 6 c. flour, one at a time (it’s important to add the flour a little at a time, because if you add it all at once, the dough won’t mix up correctly—and you may find you don’t need the entire 6 cups of flour, so be sure you follow the directions here.)

The dough should be soft and a little tacky, but not overly sticky.  Let the dough raise for one hour or until it’s doubled in size.  I do this right in the bowl I mixed it together in.

Punch dough down and divide into thirds. Roll the thirds into circles and cut 8 to 12 wedges like you’d cut a pie.  Roll each wedge from the broad side to the point.  Brush with butter and place points down on a greased cookie sheet.  Let rolls raise again until doubled in size and bake at 400 degrees for ten minutes.

These also freeze well in the dough stage for later use.  To freeze, place cookie sheets with shaped, unbaked rolls in freezer.  When frozen, remove them from the cookie sheet and store them in freezer bags.  When you want to use them, place desired number of frozen rolls on a greased cookie sheet and let them thaw and rise until doubled in size.  This takes anywhere from three to five hours if you just set them out. You can hasten the thawing/raising process by preheating your oven to 200 degrees, then shutting it off and placing a bowl of hot water on the bottom rack of the oven.  Place the frozen rolls in the oven and let them raise until doubled in size (this will still take an hour or so.)  Then bake as above.

Just to let you know, I have let this dough over-raise and then over raise again, and the rolls still turned out fine.  Maybe they were a teeny weeny bit denser than if I’d not let the dough go so long, but the difference in texture was negligible and the taste was still divine.  This is a very forgiving recipe.