Grandmother’s Homemade Rolls

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November 2019 View more

Recipe courtesy Blackberry Market’s Anna Davidson

Yield: 3 dozen rolls

  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1 cup lukewarm water
  • 1 cup butter, divided
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 packages (just under 2 tablespoons) yeast 
  • 6 cups flour
  • 2 eggs

Directions for dough

Note: Make the dough the night before your holiday dinner.

  1. Dissolve sugar, salt, and ½ cup butter in boiling water; allow to cool.
  2. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water.
  3. Add first water mixture to yeast mixture after it has cooled.
  4. Add 3 cups of flour to liquid, then beat in bowl of standing mixer or hand mixer.
  5. Add 2 eggs and beat again.
  6. Add enough of last 3 cups of flour to make dough stiff, but still a little sticky.
  7. Cover bowl with towel and refrigerate dough overnight.

Speed up steps 1 to 3 by melting the butter and adding it to 2 cups lukewarm water (instead of 1 cup boiling water), then add sugar and salt. This mixture will cool faster before adding yeast.

Directions for baking rolls

Note: This process is much easier with a helper who will pick up the rolled-out rolls and dip them in butter for you.

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Melt ½ cup butter and pour it into a large cake pan. Set pan on a plate (or any object) so that it is at an incline toward you, and the butter runs down to the bottom.
  3. On a floured surface, roll out about half of the dough. This will require a lot of flour and quick rolling because it shrinks back fast.
  4. With a floured plastic child’s cup (what we use at our house) or a biscuit cutter, cut out rolls in circles. As they are cut, pick up (or ask someone else to pick up) each roll and dip it the pile of butter and then gently fold it in half and press it in place in the top corner of the pan. Repeat this with all the rolls, forming rows going up and down the pan. There is not really space between the rolls, but they are not crammed together either. They will rise together and bake all together, but they are easy to break off. Melt more butter if needed.
  5. Allow rolls to rise for about 45 minutes. If you need them to rise for longer because the turkey is still in the oven, set them in a cool place. If you need them to rise faster, place them on top of the warm oven.
  6. Bake rolls 10 to 15 minutes, or until just browned.
  7. Serve rolls warm, in a basket wrapped in a towel. 

Photo courtesy Blackberry Market