There is a pre-requisite to every celebratory meal in our home: Grandma's Butter Rolls. In my home growing up, we usually used a particular take & bake variety of roll because my Grandpa loved them so much so my mom always made sure they were at our holiday meals! But in my husband's family, Grandma was famous for her rolls, so they were always present for special occasions. These rolls were something you just didn't do without.
The first time I sampled them was at a holiday dinner shortly before marrying into my husband's family. The rolls were there in abundance, and I was shocked at how many were consumed--especially by the grown men. My soon-to-be hubby was no exception to this rule! So I knew when our first Valentine's Day came along a couple months after we were married, the rolls had to make an appearance.
One of the wonderful things about Grandma's recipes is that most of them are very simple and straight-forward. I've only been in the family for six years, so my experience with this recipe is so limited in comparison to the many, many other members of Grandma's posterity. After she passed away, part of the memories included how this recipe has been passed around, taught to many, and used as a way for Grandma to share her love with literally hundreds (probably thousands) of people all over the world! Some very sweet ladies prepared them for the dinner following her funeral services, just another small way to show how much love can be had just by sharing a recipe.
So without more from me, (because I'm just one recipient of a wonderful gift) Grandma's Butter Rolls...
Combine warm water and yeast in large mixing bowl and let sponge. This should take about 10 minutes for some good, frothy bubbles. You can dissolve the sugar in the water at this stage to help the yeast along if you want.
Add in remaining wet ingredients, making sure your butter is melted but cooled to about 100 degrees and your eggs thoroughly beaten before adding to the mixture.
Add in the flour and mix, mix, (knead) mix! You can do it by hand, but a stand mixer with dough hook attached is lots easier!
You may need to add a small amount of flour, but don't overdo it. The dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl but still be pretty sticky to the touch and on the bottom of the bowl.
Remember to spray the edges of your bowl and smooth out your dough before placing it back into the bowl, misting with some cooking spray, and covering with plastic wrap to let rise.
I always do this the night before I want to make them because rise time is invaluable with this recipe! At room temperature, it's about 8 hours total!! Don't skimp on the rise time. It's what makes these so light, feathery and perfectly fluffy.
For the first rise, (at room temperature) let rise 3-4 hours or until doubled. Watch it towards the end so it doesn't deflate.
If it's been in the fridge, take the dough out at least 2-3 hours before rolling out. You'll probably still want 4-5 hours though, depending on how cold your weather (and your home) is that day.
When your'e ready to roll out the dough, get your station all set up with greased baking trays, a rolling pin, pizza cutter, flour, softened butter and a rubber spatula.
Sprinkle your work surface with a good amount (about 1/4 cup) flour. I usually dump the whole bowl full of dough out onto the table and turn it once to lightly coat it with flour. Then I divide the dough into balls.
For a single recipe, divide the dough into 2 balls. Since you're probably making more than that though, divide it proportionally--2 balls for every single recipe (so if it's doubled, four balls). If you're serving more than 4-6 people, a single batch of dough is not enough. You've been warned.
Just FYI, my 7 quart mixer bowl can mix and knead a triple batch of dough, but needs to be divided in half to allow for enough room to rise.
Set aside your extra dough balls and put one in the center of your floured work surface.
Now don't ask me why I didn't think of this myself, but don't be like me and try to do crazy geometry to get perfect triangles for rolling into crescent rolls. My first few times, I rolled out a rectangle and divided it. No joke. And then I saw my mother-in-law do it, and it was an epiphany for me to roll it out into a circle and cut pie pieces. Duh!
So roll it into a circle. Think pizza. Use the pizza cutter to remind yourself.
Spread with a generous coating of butter.
Whip out the pizza cutter and slice into 16 semi-equal-sized pieces.
Roll from the large end to create crescent roll shape.
Place the tip underneath the roll on your baking sheet, lest they unroll during rising. You can curve the ends in a little to really make that crescent shape, but I always make them too squatty to do that. Operator error.
Mist tops with spray oil, (or butter generously using pastry brush) cover and let rise for 3-5 hours. Watch carefully so they get nice and big but don't let them deflate!!
By the way, you can do everything up to this point and refrigerate the raw rolls. Just pull them out of the fridge in the morning 4-5 hours before baking time. I've done it before, and it works great! It saves SO MUCH time on the big feast day if you're busy with other things. But finding room in the fridge is a little tricky.
Let them get nice and plump while rising. Loosen up the plastic wrap a few times if you need to.
When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Check them after 6 minutes, bake for up to 10. The rolls will be very pale, with only the tips and edges getting very lightly golden. Serve fresh and hot!!
Grandma's Butter Rolls
1 cup warm water
1 T yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 tsp salt
4 cups flour
Combine warm water, sugar and yeast in large mixing bowl. Let sponge for 10-15 minutes. Melt butter and let cool to 100 degrees (lukewarm, like a baby bottle). Beat eggs. When butter is cool enough and sponge nice and frothy, add all but flour to yeast mixture. Stir in flour and mix well, adding in flour 1/2 cup at a time as needed. Dough will still be sticky--it should pull away from the edges of the bowl, but still stick to the bottom. Knead for 8-12 minutes. Spray sides and bottom of large bowl, add dough, cover and let rise for 3-5 hours. Optionally, refrigerate at this point. If refrigerated, remove 3-5 hours before rolling. When ready to roll, lightly coat work surface with flour. Divide dough into 2 balls. Roll ball into large circle. Spread dough with generous amount of butter. Slice dough into 16 even pie pieces. Roll from large end to create crescent roll shape and place on greased baking sheet, tip side down. Grease tops of rolls with spray oil or butter, cover and let rise 3-5 hours. Optionally, refrigerate before rising. While rising, watch carefully so rolls do not deflate. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake 6-10 minutes, watching for very light toasting on tips and edges. Serve hot, and share the love!
No comments:
Post a Comment