Great Grandma’s Potato Hot Rolls
March 28, 2009
A year or two ago, Katie and I were digging through a little metal card file of family recipes. Amongst them was a 4 card set entitled “Grandma Daily’s Hot Rolls”. This is actually my great grandmother referenced in the title. We’ve looked at this card a couple of times, and thought they’d be great, but then decided it was too much trouble, or we didn’t have time.
Today, along with a pot roast, we made these rolls. They are wonderful, but not particularly good for you.
Ingredients:
2.5 tsp active dry yeast (or equivalent)
1 cup potato water (warm – from boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes)
1/2 cup sugar (approx. maybe 1 to 2 tbsp more)
1 cup crisco shortening
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp salt
3 cups milk
1 cup mashed potatoes
8 to 10 cups flour (we get really fresh, dry flour, and tend to use rather more in any recipe. We probably ended up using at least 11 cups).
Add the yeast and sugar to the water, and let proof.
Heat milk until hot, add butter and shortening to melt, cool to 80-90ish degrees – you don’t want to kill the yeast. Mix the milk mixture with the eggs and salt, and add the potato water, yeast and sugar mixture to that. mix the flour and mashed potatoes into this, forming a nice soft dough. It should be very moist but not gooey. Knead as typical for breads, cover and let rise until doubled, punch down, let it rise again. Punch it down and divide it into about 3 oz portions, and pan them in lasagna trays or similar, greased. Let rise, covered, again for about 20 minutes or so and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes. When done, we rubbed a stick of soft butter on the top.
These are a truly wonderful potato hot roll that really isn’t a lot more work than any other bread. They’re soft, light, and so on, because of the fat and sugar. We both wish we had made these years ago. Mom hadn’t had them in at least 30 years, and thought they were absolutely wonderful.
Edit from Katie: Just as a side note, a full recipe of these made about 3 dozen 3 oz rolls, so unless you’re feeding an army, a half batch would probably be a good idea.
