Make the Best Ever Yeast Rolls for Thanksgiving - No. 61
An old family recipe still works in today’s busy kitchen, plus it makes Cinnamon Rolls!
I’m back in Nashville after the first leg of book tour. Loved driving into Mississippi and back up through Memphis. I always thought the best cooks come from Mississippi. The best storytellers, too. My friend Ann Buchanan once told me that’s because everyone in Mississippi spends so much time in their cars getting from one place to another. What’s better to talk about than what you’re cooking for your next meal?
As much as I love crusty bread baked in a wood-fired oven, one of my favorite breads isn't crusty at all. It's those soft yeast rolls - as much a part of my food DNA as cake.
My mother and mother-in-law made yeast rolls for holidays and when company came to visit. And because these two women stayed busy - boy, did they stay busy! - they made overnight rolls.
Overnight rolls, refrigerator rolls, icebox rolls, sometimes called "Frigidaire" rolls, this do-ahead bread dough goes by a thousand names. It's an age-old concept, perfected in the 1930s when women were busy and in the workforce, so meals were planned ahead and with a little forethought - and a refrigerator - bread could be freshly baked and passed warm at each meal.
I was raised on Parker House or pocketbook rolls where you cut out rounds of dough like you’re stamping biscuits, dip them into melted butter, and fold them over before placing side by side - touching each other - in a buttered pan. Those rolls rise in a warm place, which the kitchen is when there’s turkey roasting, and then go into a hot oven, and are so irresistible.
How Do Overnight Rolls Work?
Just like it was prepared decades ago, you combine the ingredients in a big mixing bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge overnight.
When you are ready to bake the next day or the day after that, you punch down the dough, which has risen in the bowl. Then spoon out some of the dough onto a lightly floured counter, roll it, and cut out rounds like I mentioned above. Dip them into melted butter and fold them over and place in the pan.
If you place the rolls tightly together in a cake layer pan, they make softer rolls, or if you place them further apart on a baking sheet, they make rolls with crispier sides - to each their own!
The concept of setting dough aside for a longer, slower rise has been around for generations. Cooler temps slow down the growth of yeast.
And the added bonus is that the dough improves in flavor and texture. Dough that has been left to rest in cold temperatures overnight will be easier to work with the next day. It will be less sticky and require less flour for rolling out, and thus, you have a more delicious roll.
Because the more flour you work into the dough while rolling and cutting, the harder and heavier those rolls will be after baking.
Overnight rolls just taste better, too. They have a more developed yeast flavor, something akin to sourdough. And the dough keeps in the fridge for up to three days. And after baking, the rolls freeze well, too. If there are any left!
My Mother-in-Law’s Overnight Rolls
In years past, when we arrived in Chattanooga for Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law Flowerree had made the roll dough ahead of time, and it was in the fridge waiting for us. The warm kitchen with the turkey roasting and casseroles baking made a nice and cozy temperature for these rolls to rise before baking. And if the aroma of the roasted turkey wasn't intoxicating enough, you had the scent of yeasty rolls baking in the oven while the turkey rests and is carved. It doesn't get much better than this!
As the years went on, my daughters and I took on the job of roll bakers, making the dough in Nashville, and then packing it in a cooler in the car for the short two-hour drive to Grandmother’s house. There, we’d stake out space in her busy kitchen and begin the process.
We also made cinnamon rolls using the scraps of dough. Oh my!
You just roll those scraps together, smear with soft butter and sprinkle generously with brown sugar and cinnamon, some raisins or nuts, too, then roll up into a jelly roll, slice, and bake the cinnamon rolls at 400 degrees until golden.
In fact, you might want to bypass the rolls altogether and go straight to cinnamon rolls. Or in the language of the favorite holiday pastime, just pass GO and collect the $200!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Flowerree’s Overnight Rolls
We’ve fiddled with this recipe over the years, adding butter for some of the vegetable shortening. Suit yourself. I do believe that some shortening is needed to make a light roll. And as for the flour, I have made them with White Lily, which makes a softer roll and with unbleached King Arthur, which makes a firmer roll. Our mothers and grandmothers knew a lot about rolls. But flour was flour to them. They didn’t have the choices we do today.
Makes 6 dozen rolls
Prep: 20 minutes
Rise: 1 1/2 hours
Bake: 10 to 12 minutes
1 cup vegetable shortening (or 1/2 cup shortening and 1 stick salted butter)
3/4 cup sugar (or slightly less for a less sweet roll)
2 cups boiling water
2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, beaten
6 cups all-purpose flour
8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter, melted (nice to get a good salted European butter like Kerrygold)
1. Place the vegetable shortening and sugar in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over and stir to melt the shortening and dissolve the sugar. Let the mixture cool 10 minutes, or until warm. Stir in the yeast to dissolve it. Stir in the salt and beaten eggs. Stir in the flour, gradually, until the mixture comes together into a mass. It will be thick and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
2. The next morning, brush a little of the melted butter into cake layer pans or onto a large sheet pan that has a 1-inch rim and set the pan aside. Turn the dough out onto a generously floured work surface. Roll with a floured rolling pin until the dough is about 1/3-inch thick. Cut into 2-inch rounds using a glass dipped in flour or a floured biscuit cutter. Dip the rounds in melted butter, fold in half, and place the folded rolls in tight rows in the pan. Brush the rolls with more melted butter, if desired. Cover the pan with a light kitchen towel and place in a warm place to rise until doubled, 1 1/2 hours.
3. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Uncover the rolls and place the pan in the oven. Bake until they are lightly browned and cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Brush with more melted butter, if desired, and serve warm.
This Thanksgiving Thursday for Subscribers:
What I’m thankful for.
What are you grateful for this year?
And congratulations to the winners of the A New Take on Cake book launch prizes! Emily Unger Daly of Boston won the Lodge two-handled 12-inch skillet, and Kaye Evans of Nashville won the autographed set of my three cookbooks!
The New Take on Cake BOOK TOUR Continues!
If you are in the Nashville area and need cookbooks signed for yourself or gifts, I will be at two Barnes & Noble stores on Saturday, Nov. 27. At noon in Murfreesboro and at 2 pm in Cool Springs. Check my book tour schedule for details!
And then it’s on to South Carolina - Litchfield Books in Pawley’s Island on Nov. 30. Next, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, NC, and Southern Home & Kitchen in Winston-Salem on Dec. 1. Then over the hills and through the woods to Greek’s Bearing Gifts in Athens, TN, on Dec. 2.
On Saturday, Dec. 4, I will be in my old stomping grounds of Atlanta, at 11 am at A Capella Books and at 1 pm in Woodstock at FoxTale Books, getting out of town just before the Southeastern Conference football championship game begins downtown. Whew!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week! Happy Baking!
Anne
Each holiday season, my husband suggests we pick up a bag of these kind of rolls from the supermarket, as they bring back warm memories of dinner time and growing up in Georgia. Me, a sorta-kinda baker, always scoffs at the idea. "Bagged rolls"? is my standard —and I guess, snooty—response as we move on to the next aisle. Today, I spotted the last bag of White Lily flour at the market and took it as a sign to bake a batch of these yeast rolls. They sound delicious. Thanks for sharing the recipe, Anne.
What great memories and the rolls are gorgeous. I love your mother-in-law’s name— and the recipe is a lovely tribute. Happy Thanksgiving, Anne!