Mom's Original Dinner and Cinnamon Rolls

By Addie

These rolls are great because you can freeze them and they taste as good as if you made them that day. These are also great cinnamon rolls. One of my favorite memories growing up was Sunday dinner with my mom's homemade rolls. I remember people would ask my mom for her recipe and they would come back and say they couldn't get it right. I finally decided to tackle my moms roll recipe and had her show me how to make rolls. I wrote down her little tricks along the way. This is what I came up with.

Ingredients

• 1 cup scalded milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons yeast, dissolved in 1/2 cup water
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 6 cups flour (approximately)

Preparation

Step 1

Scald milk. Mix eggs, sugar, shortening, salt and milk with enough flour to make a cake like batter. Add yeast and the rest of flour until you have a very soft dough.

Let rise until double in bulk. For dinner rolls that you are going to freeze, punch dozen and roll out to ¼ inch thick. Spread with butter and shape into crescents.

Place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Put in freezer immediately. DO not allow to rise. The day you want hot rolls, remove from freezer, take tin foil off, let rise on wire rack for 3-4 hours (depending on how warm you house is). Bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Brush with margarine.

If you are going to serve these rolls the same day, after punching them down, allow them to rise again to double in bulk. Roll out to ¼ inch thick, spread with margarine and shape into crescents.
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FOR CINNAMON ROLLS:

If freezing, punch down and roll out to ¼ inch thick on a slightly floured surface Put some melted butter on your fingers. Spread enough melted butter on top of dough to get it wet and have cinnamon stick to it. Put cinnamon on top and rub around with your fingers. This should cover the dough well with your melted butter.

Add cinnamon mixture (I watched her combine white sugar, cinnamon, and brown sugar but I don’t have any idea on the measurements – just have to experiment to get the taste you want) and spread over dough. At this point you can also add chopped nuts and raisins or whatever else you want. (Begin rolling the dough with the longer side and as you get close to the end tuck in the ends so that the fillings don’t come out and then roll to close)

Roll up the entire thing of dough, tucking in sides to keep it all together. Place seam side down. Take a string of dental floss and put it under your rolled up dough (should look like a log). Take the two ends and criss cross them over the dough to slice it. Do not make fat cinnamon rolls. Lay cinnamon roll onto its flat side and continue to cut the rest of the log roll of dough. As soon as they are all on the tray, cover with tin foil (make sure the rolls are covered air tight so that they don’t dry out and later you can transfer the rolls from the metal tray to freezer bags to store) and immediately put them in the freezer. Do not let them rise at all.

When you are ready to have cinnamon rolls, take them out and let rise, 2-3 hours, depending on how warm your house is. Put them in a preheated oven of 375 degrees and bake for 18-20 minutes, checking them after 15 minutes. As soon as you take them out of the oven, pour on frosting.

If you are going to immediately serve these cinnamon rolls, punch down and roll out to ¼ inch thick. Spread enough melted butter on top of dough to get it wet and have cinnamon stick to it. Put cinnamon on top and spread around with your hands. This should cover the dough well with your melted butter. Add cinnamon mixture and spread over dough. Roll up the entire thing of dough. Take a string of dental floss and put it under your rolled up dough (should look like a log). Take the two ends and criss cross them over the dough to slice it. Lay cinnamon roll onto its flat side and continue to cut the rest of the log roll of dough.

Let the rolls rise, then bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes, checking them after 15 minutes.
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CINNAMON ROLL FILLING:

Cinnamon
White Sugar
Brown sugar

Mix the desired amount of each to put in dough for cinnamon rolls
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FROSTING FOR CINNAMON ROLLS:

Powdered sugar
milk
vanilla

Put powdered sugar into a bowl and add small amount of milk until desired consistency. Add in a little vanilla until you like the taste.