best dessert recipes: My Mother's Yeast Rolls

My Mother's Yeast Rolls

My mother has made these yeast rolls at least once a week for as long as I can remember. She also makes them for the monthly potluck dinners at her church. She has made them numerous times for bereaved families or just to help out the neighbors. She celebrated 86 years on her birthday this year, so I can't begin to guess how many pans of these yeast rolls she has made.

I like to try different recipes and experiment with new dishes. Not Mother. She's happy cooking what she has always cooked. This is the same recipe that she has always used throughout all her years of baking bread. You know, maybe that's her secret - keep doing the same thing over and over until you have perfected it.

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Yeast Rolls
In a small bowl, mix together:
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 package yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons)

Let this stand until yeast bubbles up.

In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup warm water

Combine yeast mixture with the oil mixture. Add about 6 cups all purpose flour, gradually stirring in 1 cup at a time. Knead well, then place dough in a large greased bowl to rise. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until double in size (about 2 1/2 - 3 hours). Knead again, and form dough into rolls. Place in a greased 9 x 13-inch pan. Let rise again until rolls touch top of pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until browned.

One cup of warm water (not hot), 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 packet of yeast. I buy yeast in these larger packages, because I bake so much, then I measure it out. One regular yeast packet = 2 1/4 teaspoons.

This is how the yeast looks after it bubbles up.

Mix the oil, sugar, salt and water. The mixture does not resemble bread at this stage.

This is my mother's flour brand. She seriously won't buy anything else. Does the flour make a difference? Yes, it really does. I know there are many good brands of flour, so use the brand you have good results with. I promise that you will be able to tell a difference in the bread when you change to different brands, though. I have made this same recipe with different kinds of flour, and the bread is changed when the flour is changed. My mother likes her bread to be white and light, so she uses a flour that suits that purpose.

As the ingredients are all mixed, the dough will go through different stages. It needs a lots of mixing or stirring.

The flour should be added only one cup at a time.

By the time the last cup of flour has been worked in, the dough will pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl. If the dough does not pull away, add a little more flour in 1/4 cup increments until it reaches this consistency.

Pour the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and work into a ball.

Place dough in a large greased bowl, turn dough over so that top is coated with oil.

Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until double in size (about 2 1/2 - 3 hours).

After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to push all the air out by folding over several times.

Now the dough is ready to make into rolls. My mother would just start pinching off pieces of dough to put into a greased pan, but I can't do it that way. Maybe after I've done this long enough, I'll be able to make my bread that way, too, but for now to ensure that everything comes out even, I have to divide my dough.