YOU SAY YEAST ROLLS I SAY YEAST BISCUITS

When I was growing up we always said yeast rolls.

When Mark was growing up they always said yeast biscuits.

I can hear his mom saying it now.

June always made yeast biscuits when she had the family for dinner.

She would most always make them ahead of time and freeze them.

That helped her out a lot and we couldn't tell the difference.

When she brought them to the table they tasted fresh from the oven.

Not long after we married she shared her recipe with me.

I made them and made them and made them.

Or I should say I tried and I tried to make them.

We rented a house from James and Melba Denny at that time it was near Shorts Corner Road, the house is no longer there but if you went over there and looked over the fence I'm pretty sure you would find a stone hard pile of failed yeast rolls.

I did eventually learn to make them and while I would never say I could make them like June I could make them.

Then I  got into making sourdough bread.

Boy was that a mistake I gained thirty pounds.

My sister in laws are good bread makers too but I don't make bread anymore.

Not even for the holidays.

I buy the frozen kind, let them thaw and bake.

We like those fine.

There are a lot of yeast roll recipes.

You probably have one.

Some get complicated and some are simple.

Junes is simple.

She has made them for years.

With Thanksgiving coming up I thought it might be a good time to share the recipe.

Remember a recipe can't tell you everything.

Things like pie crust, biscuits and yeast bread take practice so get started now and don't worry if you have to throw a couple of batches out it's just the way of it.

June's Yeast Biscuits

2 packages of yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 Tbsp sugar

1/3 cups oil

1/2 cup sugar

2.tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup scalded milk

about 5 1/2 cups flour give or take

Put the 1/2 cups warm water into a bowl and sprinkle the two packages of yeast over the top, add the 1 tbsp of sugar and stir.  Don't get your water too hot or you will kill the yeast, if you can't put your finger in the water and keep it  there it's too hot for the yeast, if it's too cool it won't work as well just nice and warm to the touch is what you want.

I'm sure todays recipes would tell you to use a thermometer and give you a temp but this is a before that time recipe.

In a large bowl add the oil, sugar, salt, beaten eggs, half the flour, the scalded milk, ( to scaled milk just put it in a small saucepan on the stove and heat it. Stay right there with it. When you see it start to make those little bubbles around the side and you can see the milk start to look like it's sticking to the side it's scalded. Don't let it boil, just let little bubbles start to form on the side of the pan )

Next add the yeast, stir will and work in the rest of the flour.

If the dough is sticking to your hands really bad and seems wet add flour slowly until it no longer does that.

Knead well.

About 8 to 10 minutes.

Cover with a dish cloth and let rise for at least two hours or until double in size.

Punch the dough down and pinch off a small piece and roll into a ball or you can lightly roll them out and use a biscuit cutter.

If you want to make clover leaf rolls just take three small balls of dough and place them into muffin tins, let rise and bake as usual.

Place on a lightly greased baking pan.

I always start them out baking at 425 degrees.

Granted that's hot but it gives them a shot of rising power.

After five minutes I reduce the temp to 350 and bake until golden brown.

I'd say about 15 to 20 minutes.

When you take them out of the oven place the baking sheet or pan on a cooling rack so air can move underneath that will help keep the bottom of the rolls from getting damp or worse yet soggy.

If you wan't to freeze them let them cool completely place them in a good quality freezer bag and freeze.

I use this recipe when I make homemade cinnamon rolls .

I hope you will give it a try and even if you are like me and don't make them all the time it's just nice you know you can.

The world needs more bread makers with bread cooling in the kitchen.