Homemade Yeast Rolls

My parents and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. My mom made a turkey breast, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and asparagus. I made rolls using our standard recipe which is based on the one used by the elementary school cafeteria, in Buncombe County, NC, that my mom went to in the 50s. It's been drastically altered to be somewhat healthy, because I believe the original version called for lard.

Mix in a stand mixer with a dough hook:

1 extra large egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil

Dissolve into 1 cup of warm water:
1 package of yeast
1 tsp sugar

Add 1 cup of flour and the yeast to the mixer.

Gradually add :
3 cups of flour
1 tsp salt

Keep mixing until the sides of the bowl are clean. You may have to add just a little more flour, until the dough comes off the hook easily and is no longer sticky.

This is when I start cursing at my Kitchen Aid mixer, because I can never get the bowl off the base. Let the dough rise. I'm always highly concerned that it isn't rising enough at this point, but it always turns out just fine. Form roll sized globs of dough and plop them onto a greased baking sheet. I tend to make twelve rolls. Let them rise more. Bake on the top oven rack at 475 degrees for 10 minutes.


This morning I determined that they are very good with caviar and butter. I already knew they were good with everything else, and, of course, plain.