Saturday, July 31, 2010

Do you have one of these? (UPDATED WITH PHOTO)

Everyone I know seems to have one of these on their shelves.  I've had mine for so long, I stopped "seeing" it years ago.  That all changed a few months ago.  A neighbor and I were combining efforts to make dinner for our two families and one of her contributions were these amazing dinner rolls.  Buttery and soft, they were melt in your mouth rolls.  My kids went crazy for them.  "Mom, you have to get the recipe for these.  They are amazing."  So, I asked my friend for the recipe.  She replied that I had it already, in my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  Really?  Huh...  So, we whipped out my version of the cookbook and there it was, just as she said it was.


Fast forward a few months and it was my turn to head over to the neighbors with my contributions to the meal.  She was making stew, so I thought the rolls would be perfect.  Again, they were amazing and easy.  They were good enough, in fact, that I think you should make them yourself.


 Plain Dinner Rolls - Cloverleaf Rolls
From Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook
Makes about 24

Ingredients
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 pkg)
1/4 cup water, warm (110 degrees F)
1 cup milk, scalded
1/4 cup sugar*
1/4 cup shortening*
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 stick butter, melted

Instructions:
Activate yeast in water.  Set aside

Combine milk, sugar, shortening, and salt; cool to lukewarm.

Add 1 cup flour to milk mixture, beat well.  Beat in softened yeast and egg.  Gradually add remaining flour to form soft dough, beat well.

Cover and let rise in warm place until it doubles in size; about 1 1/2 hours. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease standard muffin tin.  Turn out dough on lightly floured surface and shape dough into small balls (about an 1" in diameter).  Three should half-fill a muffin cup.  Melt butter and put a teaspoon of butter on each muffin.  Let double in tin and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Notes:  Interestingly, my friend's version of this cookbook is the 1953 version, while mine is the 1965 version and some of the recipes have been slightly modified from their original versions.
*The roll recipe in my version uses 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of shortening only as an alternative version of the recipe for richer rolls and actually calls for 2 tablespoons of each.  (Trust me, you'll prefer the 1/4 cup version.)

(UPDATED BY ADDING A PICTURE OF THAT SEEMINGLY UBIQUITOUS COOKBOOK)

2 comments:

loveaphid said...

You would think that a person who owns 70+ cookbooks would in fact own The Better Homes and Garden New Cookbook. You would be wrong. How it is that I do not own it is beyond me, and I now consider my cook collection to be sorely lacking. *sigh*

These rolls do look pretty darned yummy!!! The next time DadBob is up and I am making a bigger meal, I will have to add these to the menu.

pam said...

Well - I must own the OLD BHG Cook Book! I have had it in my library since 1975. Still rely on it for so many favorite recipes. It's predecessor had a fabulous recipe for a Strawberry Cream Pie - and when I replaced it with my "new" version, I had to find another copy because the replacement didn't have the recipe for the pie!

So it is no wonder that my book doesn't have this recipe for dinner rolls. Thank you so much for sharing it. I am still on a quest for a really great dinner roll. Will give this a try.