Passing On the Traditions: Part I - Yeast Rolls

I am not a quilter. I'm not a proficient crafter like Marie, Randy's mom. I don't have my Mom's talent with the sewing machine.

But I do like to cook and bake. Kinley and Brooke came to visit the week before Thanksgiving. Kinley didn't have school all week, so it was Grandma-time day care at The County Line.

And it gave me a chance to share time in the kitchen with two curious bakers.

It's certainly not the girls' first exposure to the kitchen. Jill is a wonderful cook and baker, and from the time the girls were little, "helping" in the kitchen has been part of their lives. When Kinley and Brooke come to Grandma's house, they always want to help make the meals.

But this gave us a chance to work together on holiday traditions - yeast rolls and pies. (More on pies in the next blog post.)

I certainly wasn't baking bread at age 4 or 6. True confessions: I was a white-ribbon yeast bread baker as a Pratt County 4-Her back in the day. That's what happens when you only make bread before the county fair.

Jill & Holly's yeast bread adventures started with pretzels. Click HERE for the pretzel recipe they used.

But when Jill was in 4-H, she and her friend, Holly, got interested in yeast breads. And I learned right along with them.

Thanksgiving gave me the chance to bake yeast rolls with a new generation of little girls. We even used the same recipe that Jill and Holly made years ago. (Click here for that recipe and for step-by-step photos on making crescent rolls from a previous blog post.)

 

The girls helped me mix up the bread dough using the KitchenAid mixer that belonged to my late mother-in-law, their paternal great-grandma. Since I got to take it home after Marie's death 20+ years ago, I've told Randy that I will be immediately replacing it if this essential piece of kitchen equipment breaks down. It's just as vital to my kitchen as combine parts are during harvest.

I neglected to get photos of the girls kneading the dough. However, Jill says that Kinley had some tips to share about "how Grandma does it" when they were making pizza dough after their bread-baking adventures. (Sorry, Jill!)

They loved seeing how much the dough had risen after letting it rest for an hour. (Here's a better photo of the actual bread from my pre-Christmas bread baking session.)

They were ready to punch it down:

Look at those faces!

The next step was rolling out the dough. Since I knew we were going to be making bread dough and rolling out pie crusts, I borrowed a smaller roller pin from their house and bought an even smaller one. The medium-sized one and my full-sized rolling pin worked better than the small one for getting the dough even.

Rolling bread dough requires a great deal of concentration (and holding your mouth just right ... she gets that from me)!

They were troopers. We made two recipes of dough - one white and one whole wheat - and they rolled out every bit of the dough.

We used a pizza cutter to separate the dough circles into eight equal parts. That's even hard for me!

Then we rolled each section into a crescent shape.

I told the girls to try and press the end underneath the roll. That probably led to a little more "squeezing" than "shaping" on Brooke's behalf, but we got the job done. And, again, they kept with it the whole time.

Even though their Mommy said they didn't particularly like yeast rolls, they definitely ate their share when they came out of the oven.

And the rest of the family enjoyed them with our Thanksgiving meal, too.

This past weekend, I completed the process again to make rolls for the Moore family Christmas Eve gathering. I made five recipes, using part for crescent rolls. I also made cinnamon rolls for the freezer as a gift for my parents' Christmas, and I used a portion of the dough for hamburger and cheese-stuffed sandwich pockets.

I was ready to be done. I could have used those two extra helpers, don't you think?

Resurrection Rolls

"I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date.

"No time to say 'Hello," 'Goodbye,'

"I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!"

The White Rabbit was late in Alice in Wonderland. Easter has come and gone, and this recipe would have been more timely before the big day. For several years, I've looked up recipes for Resurrection Rolls, but I didn't actually make them until last Friday, prior to our Saturday Easter celebration in Topeka. 


I could wait until next year and hope that I remembered I had this recipe lurking around in the files. But I had a request for the recipe. Plus, Jill says she likes these better than cinnamon rolls, so I will likely make them again before Easter. 


The rolls represent the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, thus the name. You put a large marshmallow inside a piece of dough and seal it up. After baking, the roll is hollow inside.

If you want to make them with children, grandchildren or a Sunday School class, here is the symbolism:

• The piece of dough represents the cloth they wrapped Jesus' body in for burial. 
• The marshmallow represents Jesus' body.
• The butter and sugar-cinnamon mixture represent the oils and spices His body was anointed with for burial.
• Seal the roll tightly around Jesus' body, like the stone was rolled in front of the tomb to secure it. 
• Wait for the "rising." (Obviously, you're not waiting three days, but you can make that point with the children.)

To speed up this process, you can use frozen yeast rolls that you've thawed instead of making the dough from scratch. I've also seen several recipes that use a can of crescent rolls (and less butter, sugar and cinnamon, since you're only making eight rolls.)

If you're using this for a Sunday School class, you can read the story from the Bible as the rolls are baking. They are so good you won't want to wait until next Easter to make them. And the Easter story is one we should remember every day, not just once a year amidst white lilies and brand new dresses.

Homemade Resurrection Rolls

Makes 32

1/2 recipe Kim's yeast roll dough
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
32 large marshmallows

Make yeast dough as directed. (Click on the above link or use a favorite homemade yeast dough recipe.) Let rise until doubled in bulk. Divide dough in half. Use the other half for crescent rolls, cinnamon rolls or additional Resurrection Rolls.

Divide remaining dough into 32 pieces. Mix sugar and cinnamon together. Dip large marshmallow into melted butter. Roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Flatten one piece of dough. Put marshmallow in the middle of dough, wrapping the dough around and securing the marshmallow inside, making sure it is well covered. Dip into melted butter again and then roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. You can place the balls in muffin cups or place 16 each in two 13- by 9-inch pans. Let them rise until doubled. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes until lightly browned. When you open the rolls, you'll find that the rolls are hollow inside, like Christ's empty tomb. (I did find that the rolls boiled over a bit in the muffin tins, so you need to line the oven with foil if you choose muffin tins.The marshmallow does melt out, making a gooey sauce in the bottom of the pan, which you don't want in your oven.)

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Today, I'm linked to Wake Up Wednesdays. Click on the link for recipes from across the country.

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I'm linked to the Country Fair Blog Party hosted by:

Nicole of Tales of A Kansas Farm Mom; Taysha of Dirt Road Charm; Danielle of High Heels and Shotgun Shells and Laurie of Country Linked.