The Berry Rolls
There's no better American yeast roll than the one grandma made approved by kids and adults alike and beloved by a town. This is that recipe; created by a woman who baked with love, my grandma. Search no longer, this is the roll recipe for all.
Servings: 60 small rolls
Ingredients
- 15 g (2 pkgs / 4½ tsp) active dry yeast
- 38 g (3 tbsp) granulated sugar divided
- 590 ml (2½ cups) water divided
- 23 g (1 tbsp + 1 tsp) salt
- 100 g (½ cup) shortening diced
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 840 g (7 cups) all-purpose flour, sifted fluffed, scooped, and leveled off if using a measuring cup
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix yeast and 13 g (1 tbsp) sugar. Pour in 118 ml (½ cup) of warm water 100˚F-110˚F (38˚C-43˚C). Stir and set aside until doubled, bubbly, and frothy.
- Meanwhile, boil 472 ml (2 cups) of water over the stove or in the microwave. In a large bowl, place diced shortening. Pour the boiling water over the shortening. Allow time for the shortening to melt and the water has cooled to 100˚F-110˚F (38˚C-43˚C).
- To the melted shortening, add the remaining 25 g (2 tbsp) of sugar and the salt. Stir so the sugar and salt dissolve. Stir yeast mixture into the shortening mixture.
- In another small bowl/cup (reuse the yeast mixture bowl), beat 2 eggs slightly and add them to shortening and yeast mixture. Stir well.
- Sift flour and add about 480 g (4 cups) of the sifted flour to the mixture and whisk or stir well. Add remaining 360 g (3 cups) of sifted flour and mix well. The dough will be sticky and shaggy.
- Cover dough with a towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray and set dough aside in a warm area (over an oven set at 200˚F / 93˚C). Allow dough to rise, double in size ~ 1 hour).
- Grease two to four casserole dishes that are 8x8, 7x11, or 9x13 inches using butter or cooking spray. You could use 3+ 8x8-inch pans, two 7x11-inch pans or a 9x13 and another smaller size.
- When dough has doubled in size, scoop dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead ~ 10 minutes adding enough flour during kneading until dough is no longer sticky. Dough should be tacky but not stick to the surface. Dough has been kneaded enough when pressed and the indentation fills back quickly. If the indentation remains looking like a deep dimple, continue kneading.TIP: Because this is a wet dough, you may need as much as 1 cup of additional flour when kneading. That's OK as long as you stop adding flour when the dough becomes tacky and no longer sticking to your hands or the work surface.
- Divide the dough in half. Knead each half separately for a couple of minutes until elastic and not sticky. Let dough halves rest a few minutes.
- Roll or push out each dough half to ~ ½ inch thick. Use a small, ~2-inch biscuit cutter (~2 inches) to cut out rounds. Place each dough round in greased pans allowing the rolls to touch . You can get 16 small rolls in an 8x8-inch pan. Continue rolling, patting out dough, and cutting out rounds until all dough is used.
- Bake pans of rolls together or separately for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. You may need to move the pans around during baking if baking more than 1 pan at a time so the rolls brown evenly.
- After removing baked rolls from oven, brush tops of rolls with salted butter. Cut and serve while hot with more salted butter.TIP: To easily butter tops of rolls, cut a tablespoon and stab it with a fork. Rub the butter over the tops of the rolls and watch it melt and ooze. You can also take a stick of butter holding half of the butter in the wrapper and just rub the other end (wrapper pulled back) along the tops of the rolls.
Notes
-If going to eat baked rolls within 2-3 days, don't freeze, just keep them sealed in foil and in a gallon-size zip top plastic bag on the counter. Don't open until ready to reheat. Remove rolls from zip top plastic bag still wrapped in foil, heat foil wrapped rolls in oven 325°F-350°F (177˚C) ~15 minutes, until heated through. They will still taste fresh... careful not to dry them out in the oven.
-A small 2-inch biscuit cutter yields ~60 rolls and will require 3-4 pans (3-4 combination of 8x8 & 7x11)
-Once rolls are baked and cooled, remove them from the pans, cover them in foil tightly (while still connected to one another), place in gallon-size zip top plastic bag, and freeze until ready to eat. Rolls baked in 8"x8" pans fit perfectly wrapped in foil and placed in gallon size bag. Rolls baked in 7"x11" pan will need to be divided in half, covered in foil, and placed in gallon-size bag.
-If frozen, remove only the number of bags of rolls from freezer that you intend on eating and thaw on the counter (~1 hour). Remove foil wrapped rolls from gallon-size plastic bag. Keep rolls tightly sealed in foil (or they'll dry out) and heat in oven 325°F-350°F (177˚C) ~15 minutes, until heated through but not dried out.