My grandma's roll recipe, plus a time-saving tip (2024)

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One way to save on bread and baked goods is to make them from scratch. I am not a baker. I’m not an expert. But I can bake one thing well, thanks to my Grandma. I’m going to share with you my Grandma Ramona’s roll recipe. She’s been baking these (and I’ve been eating them) for as long as I can remember. A staple at big family dinners, they are always a big hit.

I’m warning you – you can’t eat just one. I called my Grandma and asked her if I could post this recipe on the blog. She said sure. I warned her that Oprah might call her (because I know you check my blog daily, right Oprah!?) and I told Grandma that she could soon be famous once word gets out about her rolls. She just chuckled and said she had to get back to her card game with the ladies.

Disclaimer – I am so not a Martha Stewart. I will try my best to explain this recipe to you but I don’t even know all the proper lingo. 🙂 I think this might even be the first recipe I’ve ever posted on the blog – so there you go, good luck!

GRANDMA RAMONA’S ROLL RECIPE

Ingredients

• 2 eggs and water to equal 1 1/2 cup
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 cups flour (my Grandma prefers Gold Medal, I use whatever is on sale)
• 1/4 cup powdered milk
• 2 teaspoons rounded yeast

Directions

1. Add two eggs to a big measuring cup, add warm water until the level reaches 1 1/2 cups. Pour into bread machine.
2. Add butter (I warm mine first), salt, sugar, flour and powdered milk to bread machine – in that order
3. Make a well in the top of your ingredients and add your yeast
4. Turn the bread machine on dough setting (this just makes the dough, it doesn’t bake it)
5. My bread machine takes two hours. After dough is done, take it out of bread machine and set it on counter, cover and let rise for 30 minutes
6. I spray olive oil instead my Pampered Chef stoneware pan (but you can use any pan, just butter or grease it first)
7. Break the dough into small pieces and form them into balls. Make them smaller than you’d think – they will grow in the oven
8. If you want, you can brush melted butter on top of your rolls, we don’t do this and they still turn out just fine
9. Have your oven preheated to 350 degrees F. Put rolls in for 28 – 30 minutes. This could vary by oven or pan type – so just watch them closely after 25 minutes.
10. Remove and cool. Enjoy.

Don’t have a bread machine? You could easily knead this by hand. How to do that, I don’t really know, I recommend consulting Google. 🙂 My grandma uses a bread machine, so that’s the way I do it. This is also the same dough recipe that my grandma uses for her amazing cinnamon rolls – that’s another post for another day.

Time saver tip – I actually measure out the dry ingredients ahead of time and put them in big gallon Ziploc bags. This way, I don’t have to haul out all the ingredients every time we want rolls. All I have to do is add my eggs and butter, dump in my bag of dry ingredients, throw in the yeast and push start on the bread machine. Big time saver and it makes it easy for my son to help out because he just dumps the bag in the bread machine and ta da – he’s made rolls. 🙂

For those of you that are visual learners, here you go:

Get your ingredients out.

Add the wet stuff first

Add dry ingredients and your yeast

Use the DOUGH setting on your bread machine. Don’t try and bake this recipe in your machine – it’s too much quantity, it will overflow and burn (I’m speaking from experience). You can find bread machines for sure cheap at thrift stores or watch Amazon for bread machine deals. We were blessed to have my husband’s grandparents give us this one because they weren’t using it anymore.

Here’s what it should look like when you take it out of the bread machine

Cover it for 30 minutes so it can rise to the occasion. While it’s rising, grease your pan and preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll out the dough balls. Make them smaller than you’d expect. I generally push up through the bottom and tuck the ugly edges underneath, so it has a smoother top. But I’m a long way from making them look as pretty as my grandmas. AND even at their ugliest, they are still divine. Bake in the oven for 28-30 minutes at 350 degrees on until golden brown. . .

Ta Da! I just turn the whole pan upside down and dump them out to cool.

To save time on making these again (I hope you’ll want to!) I recommend measuring out all the dry ingredients and putting them in a ziploc bag. This can be stored in your pantry and ready to go when you want to make some rolls! I write on the bag what ingredients I still need to add, so I don’t even need to dig out the recipe.

Make up four or five batches at once and just store them in the pantry! You can also reuse the bags for next time.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It really is near and dear to me! My kids LOVE these and it warms my heart to know he’s enjoying the same goodness that I grew up with.

Do you have a favorite family recipe that you adore? How do you save time and money baking?