Thanksgiving Meal: My Mother’s Famous Rolls

My Mom’s World-Famous Rolls

This may not be the best picture…. but I’m telling you these rolls are GOLD!! And I’m going to share the recipe (from my mom’s own words) with the blog world right now. You can thank me later :)

Full Recipe (Half Recipe in parentheses)

• 5 cups warm water (2 ½ cups warm water)
• 4 tablespoons yeast (2 tablespoons yeast)
• 1 cup sugar (½ cup sugar)
• 2/3 cup instant powdered milk (1/3 cup instant powdered milk)
• 1 cup canola oil (½ cup canola oil)
• 4 eggs (2 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons salt (1 tablespoon salt)
• 16 cups flour (5 pounds) (8 cups flour) (My mom likes bread flour)

This is in my mom’s words (she does this by memory, by the way):

I run the water out of the tap until it is at its hottest. Measure 5 cups hot water into a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. Add the sugar and mix with a spoon or whisk. Let the yeast mixture sit for about 20 minutes to let the yeast grow. Halfway through the yeast mixture “sitting” sprinkle in the instant powdered milk, canola oil and eggs. After 20 minutes, add 6 cups of flour (3 cups if using the half recipe). Mix until everything is smooth. Add another cup of flour and the salt. Mix again until smooth. Keep adding a cup of flour at a time. If you are using a Bosch mixer, change the whisk attachment to the dough hook when the dough becomes too stiff for the whisk. (I can’t remember how many cups of flour this would be.) After changing to the dough hook, keep adding the flour until it doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. Then knead for 8 minutes.

Grease a large bowl with shortening or a tablespoon of oil. Put the dough in the bowl and turn to coat all sides. Cover with a clean towel and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled. Punch dough down and turn again in the bowl and let rise until doubled.

Shape into rolls and place in pans greased with cooking spray. Spray the tops of the rolls with the spray and let rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. It all depends upon your oven.  Take the rolls out and cool on in the pan on a cooling rack.  Rub the top of the rolls with Crisco shortening on a paper towel while they are still hot.