My grandma Jennie was a true model housewife in her day. She did all the cooking from scratch, cleaned the house, tended to her eight children and made everything look easy. She was an extraordinary cook. I would always watch in wonderment as she whipped things up without even using measuring spoons because she could so perfectly eyeball the amounts in the palm of her hand. I always looked forward to her foods on special occasions and one of them is her dinner rolls. I wanted to try and preserve that dedication, tradition and deliciousness in my life so I scheduled a day to go to her home and she shared her special recipes with me. This one, for the dinner rolls, has a special name that she used… “The best dinner rolls in the whole world; like biting into a cloud”. And it is true. They are the best and they are like biting into a fluffy cloud. Here is the recipe for Grandma Jennie’s Famous Old Fashioned Dinner Rolls.
What you need:
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup white, granulated sugar
1/2 cup shortening (no substituting this to make it healthier…you must use shortening)
1 cup hot water
4 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 Tbs (2 packages) of yeast
1/2 cup warm water
What you will do:
Heat oven to 400 degrees
Dissolve the yeast in the 1/2 cup warm water and set aside
Beat the eggs, sugar, shortening and salt together
Add the 1 cup of hot water and the yeast/water mix and stir
Add the flour gradually while stirring (my grandma used a hand cranked flour sifter!)
The dough should be more gooey than stiff. You can turn it out onto a floured surface and gently form a ball or just leave it in the bowl, cover and let rise.
Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and roll it out on a flat floured surface.
Roll until dough is 1 – 1 & 1/2 inches thick.
(at this point you can melt a bit of butter and brush it on top of the dough if you like)
Cut circles from the dough with a mason jar lid. (I used a drinking glass.)
Place them on a greased baking sheet and fold them over in half. (This is my grandma’s secret to being able to butter them easily at the dinner table. Smart, right?)
Bake them for 7 minutes (or until golden brown and baked through. Sometimes mine take a little longer.)
Transfer baked rolls to a bread basket covered with a dishtowel to keep in the heat.
Serve immediately.
Enjoy!
