Nana's Rolls: The More Crisco the Better!

One of our few family traditions is to make “Nana’s rolls” around the holidays. While these rolls have been in my family since before I was born, I have never actually made them myself! I’ve always been the “helper,” usually the person who rolls them into the crescent shape at the end. So for bread month, I decided to tackle these rolls myself! With the guidance and assistance of my dad and Aunt Gina of course…

Making any one of Nana’s recipes is like a technical challenge because there are most certainly steps and/or ingredients missing. Thanks to Aunt Gina, we actually have a complete version of the roll recipe, as she wrote it down while making them with Nana years ago (Thank you Aunt Gina!).

For brunch on New Year’s Eve morning, the Anderson cousins came over, so I made the “sweet roll” version for them. Later that night, we had a New Year’s Eve dinner with my parents, so I made the regular roll version. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy these rolls were to make. Don’t get me wrong, it’s time consuming and very messy, but they have relatively few ingredients and there’s no kneading required! I have no idea why there’s no kneading, but I’m not complaining.

Shout out to dad to making sure my dough looked the right consistency and thickness along the way. And to Aunt Gina for giving us a recipe we can follow, and being on call for emergency mixing and dough questions!

So here’s the recipe for both the sweet and regular version of the rolls (don’t let the length of the recipe intimidate you, it’s really not that bad!):

Ingredients:

• ½ cup Crisco

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 1 cup boiling water

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 ½ to 3 ¼ cups all-purpose white flour (King Arthur brand if you can get it)

• 1 egg

• 1 packet yeast.

• If you are making sweet rolls, you also need brown sugar, butter or margarine, chopped pecans/nuts, and cinnamon (if desired). You will also need some extra flour to roll out the dough.

Instructions

1. Put the ½ cup shortening, 1/3 cup sugar, and rounded teaspoon of salt in a large bowl. Pour boiling water in and dissolve all. Cool mixture slightly to lukewarm before adding yeast and egg. (if you don’t cool it, you will kill the yeast and cook the egg).

2. While above mixture is cooling, dissolve 1 package of yeast into ¼ cup of slightly lukewarm water (be sure it’s not too hot or you will kill the yeast!!) in a small bowl. After yeast begins to bubble a little, stir in 1 beaten egg into the dissolved yeast/water.

3. Add the yeast and egg mixture to the dissolved shortening mixture. Be sure the shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm or cooler. Stir gently with a mixing spoon until combined (about 15 sec).

4. Stir in 3 and ¼ cups (start with 2 and ½ cups and then add the rest if you need it) of all-purpose unsifted white flour (King Arthur brand if you can get it). The dough should be very soft, wet, and “gooshy”. It is not a stiff dough. Aunt Gina said she usually only needs a bit less than 3 cups of flour.

5. Lift the dough out of the big mixing bowl and coat the bowl lightly with vegetable oil (like Wesson oil). Put the dough back in the big bowl. Put some oil on your hands and coat the glob of dough with oil too. Cover with a damp cloth and let the dough rise till double in bulk. This takes a couple of hours. I often put it in a slightly warm place to let it rise. If you are very careful, you can put your oven on “warm”, then cool it down slightly so racks aren’t hot and put your dough in there to rise. Just be sure the oven isn’t till too hot before putting in the dough or you will kill the yeast and the dough won’t rise.

6. Punch down dough and place it in the refrigerator overnight (in bowl covered with saran wrap). It will rise in the refrigerator and double in bulk again.

Forming the rolls

For Crescent Rolls (you will need flour, 2 cookie sheets, and some extra Crisco)

1. Take the bowl of dough out of the refrigerator and punch it down.

2. Flour a board (use a pastry cloth if you have one) and a rolling pin (lots of flour keeps the dough from sticking) and roll half the dough into a large circle.

3. Dab some more of the Crisco shortening onto the top of the rolled out dough. (like you are lightly buttering toast)

4. Cut the dough into crescents. The larger the crescent, the bigger the roll. Remember they will be double or triple the size of the uncooked roll.

5. Roll into crescent shape (start on the big end of each roll and finish with the point of the crescent shape). Place rolls on a greased cookie sheet (or I put on an ungreased silpat).

6. Let the rolls rise again on the cookie sheets till they are double in size. Usually one to two hours.

7. Bake in 400 degree preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or till golden brown. They burn quickly so watch them after 8 minutes. Also do not put on bottom rack of oven, rack in the middle of the oven is best.

For Sweet Rolls (you will need flour, brown sugar, pecans or other nuts, cinnamon if desired, and softened (to room temperature) margarine or butter, and enough muffin tins for 12-18 rolls).

1. Grease the muffin tins. Put a tablespoon of brown sugar and a half tablespoon of butter in the bottom of each muffin spot in the tins.

2. Take the bowl of dough out of the refrigerator and punch it down.

3. Flour a board (use a pastry cloth if you have one) and a rolling pin (lots of flour keeps the dough from sticking) and roll half the dough into a large rectangle.

4. Mix approximately 1 cup of brown sugar and ½ cup of chopped nuts together. Add a ¼ tsp. of cinnamon if desired (taste to be sure you have the amount you want).

5. Dab some butter or margarine (softened to room temperature) on the rectangle of dough (like you are lightly buttering toast)

6. Spread the half the brown sugar/nut mixture onto the rectangle of buttered dough.

7. Roll up the dough into a cylinder (about the size of a roll of saran wrap).

8. Cut the dough into pieces about 1 inch thick.

9. Put each piece of cut dough into a muffin tin on top of the brown sugar and butter already in the bottom of the tin.

10. Repeat with the second half of the dough and brown sugar mixture.

11. Let the filled muffin tins rise till double in bulk.

12. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.