Grandma's Thanksgiving Rolls

My mom's family has a theory about Thanksgiving: you must spend at least a week prior to the holiday "training" your stomach.  By eating too much in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, your stomach will be adequately stretched out and able to take in much more holiday food than it otherwise could.  


If my maternal family instilled in me a lifelong obsession and hunger for food, my paternal side gave me the respect and craving for simple, hearty fare. They are farm people; in their kitchens, nothing is ever wasted, nothing is thrown away. You won't find fois gras in the farm kitchen, but you will learn how to de-bone a chicken, cook the meat, make stock from the skin and bones, and throw whatever's left into the ensuing soup. Bonus points if there is a dog around to slurp up the scraps.

I spent hours as a kid helping my grandmother, and then my father, learning to cook in their farmhouse tradition, where nothing was wasted and everything came from scratch. Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey carcasses always became pots of stock and chicken soup (with homemade noodles, carrots, celery, onions, and parsley, plus lots of black pepper - simple perfection) the next day. In fact, most leftovers that didn't get subsumed into a following meal got thrown into a soup pot for the best sort of recycling I've ever tasted. 

My grandma (both of them, actually) passed on when I was just a child, so my memories of her I savor and relish. I make her rolls every holiday, not only because they are the best vehicles for turkey sandwiches (with only yellow mustard - I'm a purist), but because thoughts of grandma showing me how to make them permeate their flavor still.


These are a simple variation on a classic parker house roll.  You heat water, sugar and butter to boiling.  Cool, sprinkle with yeast, then mix in eggs, flour, and salt.  An overnight rise, then they're rolled out, stamped, and patted with more butter before being left to rise a second time before being baked up into buttery, slightly sweet golden perfection.  

Our tradition was to pat one roll with jam instead of butter. The person who unwittingly took the jam roll from the basket was blessed with good luck in the coming year.  These so remind me of my family and my grandma that regardless if whether I get the jam roll, I'm still lucky.

Grandma's Rolls
2 cup Boiling water
½ cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Salt
2 Tbsp Butter
2 Eggs, beaten
2 Yeast cubes, or two envelopes yeast
½ Tsp sugar
5 1/2-6 C. Flour

Dissolve 1/2 cup sugar, 1 Tbs. salt, and 2 Tbs. butter in 2 cups boiling water. Cool until lukewarm, then sprinkle yeast over the top to "proof" it (basically, prove that it's alive and up to the job of rising your rolls).  Wait 5-10 minutes or until mixture begins to get frothy, then proceed.

Add cooled water mixture, yeast mixture, and beaten eggs to 5 1/2 cups flour (more as needed up to 6 cups or so - the dough will be fairly sticky). Cover tightly and let rise in the refrigerator overnight.

Punch down in the morning and roll out on floured board or surface to ½ inch thickness. Cut with 3” diameter glass or biscuit cutter. Place small pat butter in the center of each circle, then fold over, sealing edges, and put in a buttered 9"x13" pan. Alternatively, shape into two loaves. Let rise until double in size. Bake at 375° F. for 25 minutes for rolls (check at 20 minutes, let continue baking until golden brown on top) or 400° F. for 30 minutes for 2 loaves of bread. 


Makes two 9” x 13” pans of rolls or two loaves of bread.