I thought I would revisit one of the oldest sweet roll recipes from my more than forty years old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. This recipe was one of those on and off successes that often failed to work for me. I replaced the active dry yeast with instant dry yeast, the water for proofing with milk and I used bread flour. Well wouldn’t you know, it has never been this good! A word of caution, don’t double the recipe, not unless you are planning to eat it all in one day. When a day old, these lovely little buns seem to loose their soft texture. I made 2 dozen rolls, 12 bowknots and 12 butterhorns. I glazed the bowknots. You can also make butterfans, cloverleaves corkscrews, or parker house rolls.
OLD FASHIONED SWEET ROLLS
1-1/4 cup lukewarm milk1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2-1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
1/4 cup shortening, softened
1 egg
3-1/2 cups white bread flour
1 egg for egg wash
• Place milk, sugar, salt, yeast, shortening, egg and 1 cup of bread flour in a large bowl.
• Blend ingredients.
• Gradually add the remaining bread flour to form soft dough.
• Kneed with dough hook for four minutes or by hand for ten.
• Place in a buttered bowl, turning once to grease surface.
• Cover an let rise until doubled.
• Turn out on lightly floured surface and shape into the desired shape.
• Let shaped rolls double and baste it with egg wash.
• Bake on parchment lined baking sheets at 400F for 12-15 minutes.
Yields two dozen rolls.
Forming the bowknots
Forming the butterhorns
