Granny's Rolls

When I was first married, I made sure to go through my grandmother's recipe files and copy all of my favorite dishes she made.  I wanted to be able to cook those same dishes for my family.

Over the years I have spent a lot of time cooking, but not a lot of time cooking from her recipe files.  It seems that I could never make things taste as good as she did.  It could be that her vast cooking experience produced better results than my young efforts could.  It is also possible that she never followed a recipe exactly, so she had secrets that her recipes didn't reveal.  I also believe her cooking tasted better because of the fond memories I had of eating meals at her table, those memories affecting my ability to appreciate my own cooking.

Whatever the reason, I still don't cook much from her files.  I do want to preserve those files for my kids, so they can know something about the lady who died before they could get to know her.  Maybe their efforts at reproducing her recipes will be more satisfying than mine.

It is in that spirit that I offer her recipe for dinner rolls.  These were on her table for every holiday dinner.

Granny's Rolls

2 Cups water
1 stick butter
1 package yeast
1/2 Cup sugar
2 eggs
6 Cups flour, divided

Combine water and butter, heat to boiling to melt butter.  Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of the water mixture and add sugar.  Cool.  Add rest of water mixture to yeast mixture.  Add eggs and 2 cups flour.  Beat until well combined.  Let stand 1 hour.  Add rest of flour (4 cups) and mix well.  Oil a large bowl and put dough in bowl, turning once to coat.  Cover and let rise until double in size.  Punch down and let rise until again double in size.  Punch down.  Pinch off blobs of dough about 2 inches around and place side by side in a greased 9x13 pan.  Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven until golden brown.  As soon as you bring out of oven, run a stick of chilled butter over the tops of the rolls until slathered with butter.  Serve with extra butter.