Let’s all say “Hi” to Barbara Nell Gorman-Cool, here with the first guest post on How To Cook Like Your Grandmother.
Hi, Barbara!
Barbara saw my attempts at bread, and offered up her favorite. I’ll let Barbara take it from here.
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My mother has always made the best yeast bread of anyone I know! If only she wouldn’t over bake it! I found the following hand-written recipe for the ingredients but have modified the directions to suite myself.
2 cups milk
1 cup Crisco
2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon
1/2 cup warm water (115°F)
2 packages yeast
1 egg, beaten
“Enough” flour to make dough
(about 7-1/2 to 8 cups — depends on humidity!)
Do Not Exceed 8 Cups!
Start with 6 cups and add as needed. Weather dependent!
- In a saucepan, heat the milk to lukewarm and melt the shortening. Add the sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Set aside to cool.
- Into the 1/2 cup lukewarm water, add the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar. Stir well and let sit to “work.” (Use the measuring cup used for the milk without washing it.)
- In a large bowl, sift the flour. Make a well in the center.*
- Add the egg to the yeast and stir. Pour the yeast and the stirred egg into the well.
- Stir and begin to incorporate the flour.
- Begin adding the milk mixture as you stir the flour in.
- When the flour is worked in, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough until it is smooth and softly elastic. (I use the Kitchen Aide w/dough hook.)****
- Wipe out the large bowl and add a tablespoon of oil and rub all around. Return the dough to the bowl and roll it around until its surface is lightly oiled. (May add more oil if necessary.) (Or just spray everything with Pam.)
- Cover the bowl with a towel and sit in a warm area to allow the dough to rise until doubled in size. (I prefer to cover with plastic wrap.)
- Punch down the dough; knead well and form into rolls or loaves. Place in well greased pans, spray tops with Pam, cover loosely and leave to rise.
- In a 350°F oven, bake until tops are light brown and, when pecked with a finger, sounds hollow — set timer for 18 minutes to start checking for rolls in 9-inch pans.
* Using the KitchenAid mixer with dough hook works great!
** Time Required: 4 to 4-1/2 hours start to finish
*** Rainy day makes softer and more dough!
**** Do not over work the dough!
Software & Hardware:Always get the ingredients out first so that halfway into your bread, you don’t discover something missing! | |
| Measure milk in a 2-cup measure, pour into pan along with 2 teaspoons salt, 2/3 cup sugar and 1 cup Crisco (may use lard). Set pan on medium low burner to dissolve sugar and melt shortening. Without rinsing measuring cup,* measure 1/2 cup water and bring to 110°F to 115°F. Add the 2 yeast packages and 1 tablespoon sugar, stir well and set aside to “bloom.” *Yeast is awakened in the warm water and the sugar and residual milk feed it, giving a better rise. |  |
| Count out roughly 8 cups flour, sifting after each measure, into a large bowl; i.e., don’t sift then measure, you won’t have enough flour. Start out with the paddle attachment to your stand mixer and 6 cups flour in your mixing bowl. Add the slightly beaten egg and the bloomed yeast to the flour and begin mixing on low speed. Slowly add the milk and shortening mixture down the side. |  |
| Add more flour until your dough is no longer gooey. Switch to the dough hook and run the mixer on medium to medium high for 5 minutes. |  |
| When the dough stays with the hook in a ball form, it is ready to remove to your work surface. |  |
| The dough will be smooth and elastic. Knead for another minute or so by hand. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Place the dough in the bowl and spray the dough. |  |
| Cover with plastic wrap, set in a warm location (like under the stove lights) and allow to double in size, about 1 hour. |  |
| Punch dough down, knead the air out and pinch off balls of dough to form rolls. Place in sprayed cake pan, spray tops, cover and let raise again. Put in 350ºF oven for 20 minutes. When they come out of the oven, remove from pans, place upright on wire rack and generously brush the tops with melted butter. Yum! |  |
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This recipe is great for cinnamon rolls and forming into different shapes such as loaves, clover rolls, etc.
B. Cool
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That’s it from Barbara. Show her some love in the comments.
If you’ve ever looked in the column on the far right, you might have noticed the Foodie Blogroll. That’s a group run by Jenn, the Leftover Queen, with one membership rule: You have to write a food blog. Lots of great people there.
So anyway, apparently I’ve been hanging out with them for more than six months, because I just got an award for it.
Cool.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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22 Comments
Looks DELICIOUS! I would love to have some of those rolls right now!
I used to make bread like this! I wonder when I quit?
Your recipe looks wonderful, and brings back good memories of good smells, happy husband, and happy kids!
It’s hard to go wrong with rolls covered with melted butter. Though I prefer to have the more baking-savvy members of the family (which is to say, all of them) do these sorts of things for me. I don’t like yeast, and yeast doesn’t like me.
I think I am going to try this recipe. I have only tried making yeast bread once and it didn’t turn out too good. The instructions w/ pictures should help tremendously. After mastering these, how would you then use the same recipe for cinnamon rolls and other recipes?
Sounds very versatile.
Looks like some great rolls, Drew! I could go for one right now with this second cup of coffee!
Thanks for the shout out and congrats again!
Those look like wonderful rolls. I need to go make me some.
I’m going to agree with all of you. I’ve got to make me some of these this weekend.
It’s still weird seeing someone else’s stove up under my banner. Cool, but weird.
I think you would like my most recent post with my mom making her doughnuts! I even have a photo of her handwritten recipe!
You’re right, I like it. (Here’s the link by the way: http://shelbymaelawstories.blogspot.com/2008/10/sunday-with-mom-chocolate-giveaway.html )
I’m going to have to invite some friends over. I’m not going to do that much work for four donuts.
Lisa asked how to make into cinnamon rolls… Take a portion of the dough (maybe a quarter or less) and roll it out on your countertop… roll it as thin as possible. It will resist in the beginning so you can either roll patiently or walk away for 5 minutes to allow the dough to rest. [Use extra flour so the rolling pin won’t stick!] Once rolled (round, square, rectangular… whatever you get!) use a pastry brush to coat liberally with melted butter. Mix together cinnamon and sugar (your preference on the ratio) and sprinkle liberally. Roll from longest side into a jelly roll. My grandson likes me to just make it into a circle in a cake pan, spray with Pam, and bake at 350ºF for 18 to 20 minutes. Brush with butter while hot. Then cut and eat!
Barbara, thanks for the directions. I would have thought there was more to the filling than just sugar and cinnamon. Can you give me an idea where I should start on the sugar/cinnamon ratio?
Hey, Drew,
I tried to look at HoneyB’s blog, but couldn’t sign in because ‘I wasn’t invited.’ How do you get invited to view her blog?
If you can, find out for me.
Thanks!
I guess we can try asking here. Honeyb, how about it?
Oh, gosh, Drew… hmmm… maybe 1 part cinnamon to 4 parts white sugar… I have never measured it before! I can see and taste if it’s right.
For instructional purposes: In a 1 pint jar with lid, pour ¼ cup cinnamon. Add 1 cup white sugar, put the lid on and shake. Taste it. Not enough cinnamon? Add a tablespoon and shake again. Too much cinnamon flavor? Add a tablespoon of sugar and shake.
The pint jar provides sufficient space for the cinnamon and sugar to combine easily. If you want to make a larger batch, use a quart jar. (This is a handy use for recycling mayonnaise jars!)
While you’re at it, go ahead and add some brown sugar. How about a pinch of nutmeg. Pretty soon you’ll have apple pie spice! Hmm… the possibilities…
Awesome, thanks.
Yeah, I’ve already got a small cinnamon/sugar shaker. The girls like it on toast with butter. The wife likes having a sure-fire breakfast she can always pull of in three minutes.
Hey, I needed to see the finished cook rolls.
Great news!
Barbara saw the requests and found a photo of the finished rolls. I’ve updated the post. Woo-hoo!
Thanks Aunt Barb. Not in time for dinner but I saved it in three other places for “next time” I have a “Jeni” moment…lol.
Love your niece,
Wow, that really brought back the most wonderful memories. When I was a child, my mom used to make the same recipe, but we called it "mosbolletjies". This was in South Africa. She used to let us have some hot with butter, and the
rest would go in the oven overnight at 18O F. It would then become beskuitjies, rusks in english. We would dip it in our coffee. MMMMm just wonderful.
I'm having trouble with these. I have attempted them twice now, and am having some stickiness issues with the dough. I do not own a KitchenAid stand mixer, so am using my hand-mixer-on-a-stand. However, I know my grandmother used to make these by hand, no mixer involved. I'm not using more than the 8 cups of flour, and it's sifted… any other ideas what might be causing my dough to remain sticky?
Karla, I tried using a counter top mixer to make my bread and it’s a waste of time using those tiny little dough hooks… especially with the quantity of this recipe. I’m afraid you will have to go the “by hand” method…
• Put your flour in a large bowl making a well in the center.
• When your milk/shortening mixture has cooled slightly, temper your egg into it.
• Pour the proofed yeast into the well, stir it in a little, then begin adding the cooled “warm” milk.
• Gradually pull flour into the milk. It will get harder and harder to stir as the flour is incorporated. (Use a wooden spoon.)
• Dump the bowl out onto a floured counter and start working it. Build those muscles!
The weather has a lot to do with how sticky or dry your dough will be and, therefore, how much flour is actually going to be used… Where I live, 8 cups is generally the max… but today I had to add an additional ½ cup because it’s been so wet lately.
If you bake or make bread often, a KitchenAid is the way to go – I love mine!
Thank you, Barbara. I'll try it and see what happens.
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