GRANDMA’S BUTTER ROLLS

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My husband Jake’s Grandma was quite the lady. A class act through and through. She has passed away but some of her incredible recipes are left behind. In her neighborhood, and even in her city, she had a reputation for making the BEST ROLLS. She would be thrilled to share her recipe with you all. ❤️

Note: Grandma Bette swears that the reason her rolls are the best is that she uses @LEHIROLLERMILLS “turkey” flour (it’s their label for bread flour). This is a mill that’s local to Utah so if it’s not available to you then just use a high-quality bread flour. It really does make a difference.

LET’S TALK INGREDIENTS

MILK- The milk in this recipe adds a richness and sweetness to the dough. I think that whole milk is best, but use whatever you have. If you don’t have milk or are trying to make this dairy free, you can use water instead. This recipe calls for scalded milk. Make sure you give the milk a chance to cool a bit so that it’s not too hot or it will kill the yeast. If you touch your finger to the milk and it is too hot for your skin, it is also too hot for the yeast. If you are in a time crunch and can’t scald your milk, just use room temperature milk. 

ACTIVE DRY YEAST– I generally recommend active dry yeast but if all you have is instant yeast, go ahead and use it as an equal substitution. It will work out fine. Or if you want to use Natural

SUGAR– This recipe calls for 1/4 cup white sugar. The rolls have a very mild sweetness but they aren’t too sweet. Because they are fairly sweet. You can reduce the sugar if you want to, or you could even use honey instead of sugar. 

SALT– I recommend using a good quality sea salt if you have some. I always use Redmond Real Salt. 

EGGS– try and use room temperature eggs so the cold temperature of the eggs doesn’t slow down the rising process. You can put three cold eggs in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes to warm them up quickly. 

If you have an egg allergy, this recipe would work out great using either flax egg substitute, or Aquafaba, which is used a lot in vegan cooking as an egg replacement because it behaves so similarly to eggs! Aquafaba is simply the liquid that comes in a can of chickpeas. 1/4 cup Aquafaba equals 1 egg. 

If you had to skip the eggs altogether with no substitutions, the rolls would still work out ok. You would just need to use slightly less flour. 

MELTED BUTTER– The butter combined with the milk and the sugar is what really makes the flavor shine. If you don’t have butter, you could totally use avocado oil, olive oil, or even coconut oil. 

FLOUR– I generally recommend using bread flour, but you could absolutely use whole wheat flour, or Kamut flour for this recipe. You could do 50% bread flour and 50% whole wheat, or 100% whole wheat, or 100% kamut. Be mindful that whole wheat flour will make the final result just a bit more dense and crumbly, but the flavor will still be fantastic! Kamut flour is a good option also if you want, but the rolls won’t rise quite as high or be quite as elastic as if they were made with bread flour. Both Kamut flour and Whole Wheat flours are very thirsty, so if using either of these, you’ll need to use 10% less flour than what the recipe calls for. 

Grandma’s Butter Rolls

Grandma Bette had a reputation for excellent cooking and the BEST ROLLS. I'm sure she would want to share her recipe. These will not disappoint.

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Course: Side Dishes

Prep Time: 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes minutes

Total Time: 52 minutes minutes

Servings: 64

Ingredients

• 4 cups scalded milk
• 1 cup butter
• 3 T yeast
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 T salt
• 6 eggs beaten
• 10-12 cups Lehi Roller Mills' Turkey Flour

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Instructions

• In a saucepan, scald 4 cups of milk by heating it just enough that tiny bubbles appear on edge.
• While the milk is heating up, cut up the butter into chunks about a tablespoon worth in size, and put them in your mixer bowl, or a large bowl if you aren’t using a mixer.
• When the milk has scalded, pour milk into the bowl with the butter which will melt the butter.
• Allow it to cool for a few minutes until it’s baby-bottle warm (not too hot or it will burn the yeast) then add the yeast and sugar, which will allow the yeast to dissolve and proof.
• After about 5-10 minutes you can add the salt and eggs. Mix well.
• Start adding the flour, one cup at a time, kneading well in between. Add between 10-12 cups of the flour, the amount of flour you add will depend on many different factors, the amount of flour needed will always be a little different. When in doubt, err on the side of less flour. You want the dough to have a tacky stickiness, but not too wet/sticky. Knead well for 10 minutes, which will really work on the flour to develop the gluten and make it nice and stretchy.
• Cover the dough and let it rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Then take the dough, cut into 4 portions, and out of each quarter, make 16 equal portions.
• Take a small piece of dough and Roll out into a snake about 4-6 inches long, then tie in a single knot and set on a greased cookie sheet. Let rise a second time 30-45 minutes, the whole pan covered with a kitchen towel.
• Brush the rolls with melted butter and bake at 425° F for 10-12 min. (My oven runs hot so I have good luck with decreasing the temp to 400° F).

Notes

Let’s talk ingredients

MILK- The milk in this recipe adds a richness and sweetness to the dough. I think that whole milk is best, but use whatever you have. If you don’t have milk or are trying to make this dairy free, you can use water instead. This recipe calls for scalded milk. Make sure you give the milk a chance to cool a bit so that it’s not too hot or it will kill the yeast. If you touch your finger to the milk and it is too hot for your skin, it is also too hot for the yeast. If you are in a time crunch and can’t scald your milk, just use room temperature milk. 

ACTIVE DRY YEAST– I generally recommend active dry yeast but if all you have is instant yeast, go ahead and use it as an equal substitution. It will work out fine. Or if you want to use Natural

SUGAR– This recipe calls for 1/4 cup white sugar. The rolls have a very mild sweetness but they aren’t too sweet. Because they are fairly sweet. You can reduce the sugar if you want to, or you could even use honey instead of sugar. 

SALT– I recommend using a good quality sea salt if you have some. I always use Redmond Real Salt. 

EGGS– try and use room temperature eggs so the cold temperature of the eggs doesn’t slow down the rising process. You can put three cold eggs in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes to warm them up quickly. 

If you have an egg allergy, this recipe would work out great using either flax egg substitute, or Aquafaba, which is used a lot in vegan cooking as an egg replacement because it behaves so similarly to eggs! Aquafaba is simply the liquid that comes in a can of chickpeas. 1/4 cup Aquafaba equals 1 egg. 

If you had to skip the eggs altogether with no substitutions, the rolls would still work out ok. You would just need to use slightly less flour. 

MELTED BUTTER– The butter combined with the milk and the sugar is what really makes the flavor shine. If you don’t have butter, you could totally use avocado oil, olive oil, or even coconut oil. 

FLOUR– I generally recommend using bread flour, but you could absolutely use whole wheat flour, or Kamut flour for this recipe. You could do 50% bread flour and 50% whole wheat, or 100% whole wheat, or 100% kamut. Be mindful that whole wheat flour will make the final result just a bit more dense and crumbly, but the flavor will still be fantastic! Kamut flour is a good option also if you want, but the rolls won’t rise quite as high or be quite as elastic as if they were made with bread flour. Both Kamut flour and Whole Wheat flours are very thirsty, so if using either of these, you’ll need to use 10% less flour than what the recipe calls for.