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Grandma Kohler’s Triple-Treat Sweet Roll Dough

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Like My Mother Made

My husband doesn’t spend a lot of time wallowing in nostalgia for the foods that his mother cooked. But he has frequently mentioned his mother’s cinnamon rolls, so I figured I’d better find a recipe that could replicate Agnes Badertscher’s cinnamon rolls, which were actually made from a sweet roll dough.  What I got was both a surprise and a bonus of three recipes in one, including a loaf of just about the best white bread I’ve ever had.

Sweet white bread

White sweet bread loaf from Grandma Kohler’s sweet roll recipe.

I contacted Kay Badertscher Bass, Ken’s sister, who has written here before about vintage Badertscher recipes and about the Dalton Dariette run by their uncle.  She knew immediately what rolls her brother was talking about, and informed me that they were actually from a sweet dough recipe of Ken’s Grandmother, Helen Kohler. Even better, I thought, a three generation recipe I could pass on to my grand daughter as I did my own grandmother Anderson’s sugar cookie recipe.

Kay went digging for the sweet roll dough recipe, and soon I got the following e-mail, which sheds light on the history of the yeast dough. Turns out it yields three or four different types of sweet rolls, if you would be overwhelmed by three dozen cinnamon rolls and want variety.  Here’s Kay’s message that describes a novel way to help along the rising sweet roll dough.

The Original Sweet Roll Dough Recipe

Okay, I think I’ve unearthed what you are looking for.  It’s called New Year’s Bread* and it is an OLD recipe.  I recall Mom and Grandma Kohler getting together and making this recipe in batches for coffee cake, dinner rolls and sticky buns.  The most distinct memory was how Grandma Kohler asked Mom to put boiling water in both sides of the kitchen sink to sit and then placed the dough underneath the sink in the cabinet, covered with cloth towels to rise.  (and I also remember getting scolded royally when I kept opening the cabinet doors to see what was happening)
Here’s the basic bread recipe:
2 c. scalded milk
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. Crisco
2 pkg. (2 T.) yeast
1/2 c. warm water
2 eggs, beaten
6 – 7 c. flour

Pour scaled milk over sugar, salt, butter and Crisco.  Set aside.  Then mix yeast in warm water.  Add the yeast mixture and eggs to milk mixture.  Add enough flour to make soft dough, knead, let rise.

Depending upon what you decide to make with the dough, the instructions are to bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 40 min. (which may or may not be accurate) (NOTE: It is NOT accurate. It does not take that long. See recipe adaptation below.)

If making dinner rolls brush tops with butter after taking them out of the oven.

The streusel topping was a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and a little flour….of course, no measurements!  Grandma Kohler used to divide the coffee cake dough in half and put some of the streusel in the middle as well as the top.

The sticky buns were usually made by rolling out the dough into a rectangle, sprinkling the streusel mix over the dough and then rolling up into a log.  Grandma Kohler would dust the bottom of the pan with lots of butter and a little streusel and then place the rolls on top and dust them with a little more streusel before baking.

Sorry this isn’t more specific.  Mom and Grandma Kohler used the “by gosh and by golly” method of baking with a pinch of this and a handful of that.  But we grandkids loved that coffee cake just as much as Ken, I’m certain!  Probably why Grandma finally switched to the frozen bread dough in the latter years cause we asked for it constantly.

Well, that’s shocking!! the traditional way of making a vintage family recipe three generations ago was frozen bread dough??? That certainly plays hob with our assumptions of what is vintage, doesn’t it?

*One thing still puzzles us.  Grandma Kohler called the recipe New Year’s Bread, but she did not make a braided bread that is the tradition in Swiss and German New Year’s Breads.  I checked out my vintage Sonnenberg Centennial cookbook, and found the recipe for New Year’s Bread which is only slightly different, so next time I make this recipe, I may experiment with a braided loaf. Wish me luck.

At any rate, I blended some of the instructions in the Sonnenberg book (from a recipe submitted by a close friend of Agnes Badertscher) and I made Kohler’s recipe for sweet roll dough (before she turned to frozen bread dough), and enjoyed making a pretty big batch of dough.  I made a dozen cinnamon rolls, a dozen cloverleaf rolls and one delicious free-form loaf.

Sweet roll dough

Grandma Kohler’s sweet roll dough BEFORE rising! you can see by the 2-cup measure on the side that this is a large amount of dough.

Cinnamon rolls

Cinnamon rolls from Grandma Kohler’s sweet roll dough.

Ken looked at the rolls and immediately said those words every wife dreads–“Not like my mother’s.”  When I turned it over and showed him the side where I had sprinkled granola, obscuring the coils of the cinnamon roll, he said, “That looks more like it.”  Then he gave it the taste test.  Really good, he said. But that is not my mother’s coffee cake.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.  He apparently was thinking of his mother’s baking-powder raised coffee cake with streusel on top rather than the more elaborate yeast dough that goes into the sweet rolls.

Oh well, nothing lost.  He (and I) enjoyed every bit of the cinnamon rolls, sweet dinner rolls and white bread that the sweet roll dough provided.

Adapted Sweet Roll Dough Recipe

Here is the sweet roll dough recipe–hopefully a little clearer than the “by gosh and by golly” instructions that came directly from grandma Kohler and Ken’s mother.

Do not be intimidated by the length of the recipe. Remember, I am trying to give you fairly detailed instructions for making THREE kinds of breads.

THANK YOU KAY!

Sweet Roll Dough – Cinnamon Rolls, Dinner Rolls, Bread

Print recipe
Sweet Roll Dough – Cinnamon Rolls, Dinner Rolls, Bread
Serves 36
Prep time 3 hours
Cook time 45 minutes
Total time 3 hours, 45 minutes
Allergy Egg, Milk, Wheat
Meal type Bread, Breakfast
Misc Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable
A tried and true family recipe yields cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls or loaves of white bread.

Ingredients

proofing yeast

  • 2 packets active dry yeast (Equivalent: 4 1/2 teaspoons)
  • 1/2 cup warm water (Comfortable to drop on wrist.)
  • 1 heaped teaspoon sugar (for proofing yeast)

dough

  • 1/2 cup sugar (for dough)
  • 6-7 cups flour (plus more for kneading and patting out dough.)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
  • 2 cups milk (heat just short of boiling)
  • 2 eggs (beaten lightly)

Cinnamon roll topping

  • 1/2 cup butter (melted)
  • 6 tablespoons white sugar
  • 4 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 3 teaspoons cinnamon

Cinnamon roll topping (Optional)

  • 1/3 cup granola cereal or chopped nuts

Directions

Proof yeast
1. Sprinkle yeast on warm water in 2-cup container.Briefly mix in teaspoon of sugar. Set aside.
Mix dough
2. Blend dry ingredients--3 cups of the flour, 1/2 C sugar, salt.
3. Heat milk with butter and vegetable shortening and cool to lukewarm.
4. With electric mixer in large bowl, beat the dry ingredients (with the 3 cups of flour) and and the hot milk/shortening mixture until batter is smooth.
5. Add the yeast (which will have risen if it is active) and the eggs and stir with spoon until blended into very sticky dough.
6. Work remaining flour into dough with fingers, 1/2-1 cup at a time until the dough no longer sticks to fingers. Use as much of the 3 cups as you need.
7. Turn dough out on lightly floured surface and knead until springy and elastic.
Mix dough.
8. Shape into a ball, and place in greased mixing bowl. Put the smooth side down first, and then turn the dough that all surfaces are oily. (You can use the same bowl you mixed the dough in if you first scrape out most of the dried dough sticking to the surface.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a tea towel.
9. Let rise until doubled in warm, draft-free location. ( 1 to 2 hours)
Shaping rolls
10. Divide the dough into two or three pieces. Put the pieces you are not working with in the refrigerator.
11. For Cinnamon rolls, pat out the dough to a rough rectangle, then roll out (if you use 1/3 of the dough it will be about 14" x 18". )
Baking rolls
12. Grease 9 x 9 square pan or large pie pan, or cookie sheet for cinnamon rolls and mix the sugars and cinnamon for topping. If you are using granola or nuts, sprinkle them on the bottom of the pan.
13. Brush the top of the dough rectangle with melted butter, and sprinkle on the sugar-cinnamon mixture.
14. Roll the dough up from one long side to make a log and pinch closed the seam.
15. Using a very sharp knife or a piece of unwaxed dental floss, cut one-inch pieces from the log.
Baking Rolls
16. Place the rolls on the pan. If you use a cookie sheet and leave space between they will be crusty. If you place the side by side in a pan they will be softer on the sides. Cover with a tea towel and set aside to rise.
Baking rolls
17. When the rolls have risen by a third to double their original height (30-45 minutes), bake in 375 degree oven for 15 minutes (longer for glass pans).
Dinner rolls
18. To make dinner rolls, shape one batch of dough as you wish--clover leaf by placing three walnut-sized pieces of dough in a muffin tin; Parker house by placing balls of dough side by side in cake pan, etc. Place in buttered pan. Let rise and bake as for cinnamon rolls. When they come out of the oven, brush the tops with butter.
Free form loaf of bread
19. To make a free form loaf of bread, make a rectangle as described for the cinnamon rolls. Fold the dough over in thirds lengthwise, pinch the seam closed, and fold under the ends to make a nice shape. Place with seam side down on greased cookie sheet. Raise and bake as described for other rolls, except that it may take a little longer. Test doneness by knocking with knuckles to see if you get a hollow sound. Brush top of bread with butter when it comes out of oven.

Note

The 1/2 cup of butter is more than enough for the cinnamon rolls if you are making 1/3 of the recipe into cinnamon rolls. I used the rest to butter the pans and to brush on the top of the dinner rolls and the bread.

If you are making more than 1/3 of the dough into cinnamon rolls, increase the sugar/cinnamon ratios for the topping.

I have described the three things I did with this dough. Making a good sized loaf of bread, a dozen cloverleaf dinner rolls and a dozen cinnamon rolls. Of course, there is nothing to prevent you from making all cinnamon rolls, all dinner rolls, or whatever you wish. The bread and dinner rolls should freeze nicely. The cinnamon rolls are problematic because of the sugar. And of course you can add raisins or dried fruit or seeds or nuts to the dinner rolls and bread.

This is a recipe with tremendous flexibility.

Have fun!

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Mrs. Beeton’ s Rice Cakes

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Rice flour cookies

Gluten Free Rice cakes or biscuits or cookies.

When I offered a plate of these little cookies to a friend and assured her that Mrs. Beeton’s rice cakes are gluten free, she asked in surprise, “Mrs. Beeton had gluten-free recipes?”

Well, yes and no.  The recipe was certainly not labeled as gluten free, so it is almost an accident that it fits with one of the dietary concerns that people have in the 21st century. Do they look like sugar cookies? They also taste pretty much like sugar cookies, but that term was not in use yet, so they were called “cakes.” Or if you’re British and persist in calling cookies biscuits–that’s possible, too.

Isabella Beeton

Isabella Beeton (1836-65). Hand-tinted albumen print, Scanned from Colin Ford’s Julia Margaret Cameron: 19th Century Photographer of Genius, ISBN 1855145065. Originally from: National Portrait Gallery. Public Domain

The British wife of a publisher wrote Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management. When the book packed with helpful hints and recipes was first published in 1861, it quickly achieved block-buster success. Isabel Mayton Beeton’s book sold two million copies in its first seven years in print.

Do you remember Hints From Heloise, newspaper column from the 50s and 60s?  Mrs. Beeton’s book combines practical hints worthy of Heloise, or a Family Circle magazine along with detailed recipes and small essays on food worth of today’s staple of the kitchen, Joy of Cooking. Like Heloise, Isabella Beeton’s book was first published as monthly installments in a magazine, and later compiled in a book.

The book was not necesssarily written with you in mind.  The full title is:

The Book of Household Management Comprising information for the Mistress,Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-Maid, Butler,Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and Under House-Maids, Lady’s-Maid, Maid-of-all-Work,Laundry-Maid, Nurse and Nurse-Maid, Monthly Wet and Sick Nurses, etc. etc.—also Sanitary, Medical, & Legal Memoranda: with a History of the Origin, Properties, and Uses of all Things Connected with Home Life and Comfort.

So while the Mistress of the house was included, it appears that Mrs. Beeton had in mind a book that would help the mistress (Upstairs) in the instruction of her many servants (Downstairs). It is ironic that this class-concious book was embraced by the do-it-yourself ground breaking women of America as well as the British aristocracy.

I hold Isabella Beeton in high regard. A person setting out to write a book this comprehensive today would have a staff of a dozen. And she incorporated so many innovations.  Just think what she might have accomplished, had she not died in 1865, when she was only twenty-eight years old. But her book goes on and on.

Although Mary Morgan would not have had the book in her kitchen in the 40’s and 50’s, it is appropriate because Mrs. Beeton would have been writing about tried and true techniques that had been around for a while. Cooking equipment had not changed much by the 1860s.

Mrs. Beeton’s Recipe

Her recipe for Rice Biscuits or Cakes is a typical example of the detail she goes into, even in a very simple recipe.  Each recipe is numbered, and they are arranged by category. This one comes in Chapter 35, Breads, Biscuits and Cakes, under the heading Baking: Recipes. (As opposed to Baking: General.)

Mrs. Beeton pioneered the now-familiar technique of separating the list of ingredients and the method of preparation.  She goes a step further and tells you how long it will take, what it will cost and how much it makes.  Thank goodness Bob’s Red Mill makes rice flour for me, so I don’t need to make my own. But if I did–Mrs. Beeton to the rescue.  She even is aware of her International audience–British and American. What a woman!

1746. INGREDIENTS – To every 1/2 lb. of rice-flour allow 1/4 lb. of pounded lump sugar, 1/4 lb. of butter, 2 eggs.

Mode.—Beat the butter to a cream, stir in the rice-flour and pounded sugar, and moisten the whole with the eggs, which should be previously well beaten. Roll out the paste, shape it with a round paste-cutter into small cakes, and bake them from 12 to 18 minutes in a very slow oven.

Time.—12 to 18 minutes. Average cost, 9d.

Sufficient to make about 18 cakes. Seasonable at any time.

GROUND RICE, or rice-flour, is used for making several kinds of cakes, also for thickening soups, and for mixing with wheaten flour in producing Manna Kroup. The Americans make rice-bread, and prepare the flour for it in the following manner:—When the rice is thoroughly cleansed, the water is drawn off, and the rice, while damp, bruised in a mortar: it is then dried, and passed through a hair sieve.

My Modern Adaptation

Although the cookies melt in your mouth and are satisfyingly sugary, I found them to be quite bland, and am looking forward to trying them again with a little more flavor–like lemon rind, cocoa or even cardamon.

But nothing could be simpler than these little cookies. Just four ingredients, stir, cut, bake, and eat.

Mrs. Beeton’s Rice Cakes

Print recipe
Mrs. Beeton’s Rice Cakes
Serves 12
Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 25 minutes
Total time 40 minutes
Allergy Egg
Dietary Gluten Free
Meal type Dessert, Snack
Misc Child Friendly, Freezable
From book Mrs. Beeton's Household Management
Only four ingredients in this mid-19th century recipe for cookies made with rice flour. Yes, they are gluten free.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups rice flour (white or brown rice flour)
  • 1/2-3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/4lb butter (salted)
  • 2 eggs (medium--not jumbo)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat butter until creamy.
3. Stir in 1 1/2 C rice flour and the sugar.
4. Beat eggs, and mix enough into flour mixture to make a soft, moist dough. Add more rice flour, a Tablespoon at a time, if necessary.
5. Chill dough briefly
6. Roll or pat out dough on floured (with rice flour) surface. Cut with round cookie cutter or glass.
7. Move cookies with spatula to lightly greased bakig pan. Sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon sugar if desired.
8. Bake 12-18 minutes at 350 degrees.

Note

If you use unsalted butter in the rice cakes, be sure to add a pinch of salt.

The dough for the rice cakes will be easier to handle if you chill it before patting or rolling. My dough was far too sticky to roll, so I just patted it out.

This dough is very delicate, so I do not recommend using fancy shapes--just round rice cakes.

This makes a rather small bunch of cookies.

If you wish, sprinkle sugar or cinnamon sugar on top before the cookies go in the oven.

Since the rice cakes are a little bland,you can experiment with other flavors, such as a little lemon rind, a few drops of peppermint extract or some cocoa powder, but don't tell Mrs. Beeton. That lady did not even use any vanilla for flavoring in these "cakes."

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HEIRLOOM

The cookies are pictured on a delicate hand-crocheted doiley that I love.   Unfortunately, I do not know who made this doiley.  Best candidates are two aunts on my father’s side of the family--Irene Bucklew or Blanche Kaser.  Aren’t those pansies adorable? Every time I see this, I have a pang of regret that doileys have fallen out of favor in our no-nonsense age.

 

 

 

4, 5, 6, 7, Whatever, BEAN SALAD

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Bean Salad ingredients

We’re having a party on Saturday night to gather family and friends to welcome my sister and brother to Arizona. After all they came from both coasts–California and Virginia– in the middle of a very hot Arizona summer. The least we can do is rustle up some vittles for a good old barbecue.  Like family favorite Bean Salad.

No summer gathering is complete in my family without my Bean Salad  Five Bean Salad, Four Bean Salad, if you’re lucky even more.  Whatever the bean count, this recipe has never failed me.

One of the most dilapidated–because the most used–of the cookbooks I inherited from my mother’s home ec teaching days holds the recipe for this bean salad, which the contributor made with four beans. I’ve added one more type of bean for a Five-Bean Salad

The spiral-bound Salad Book is a gathering of favorite recipes from home economics teachers across the country.  While there are some very good recipes in this book, I will admit that some of the recipes make me cringe and think, “This person was teaching young girls to COOK?” Various bean salads take up 7 1/2 pages in the book, but this one has always been my favorite. The secret ingredient is tarragon, which lends an indescribable tang.

However, I am on an herb-growing kick, and decided to try some summer savory instead of tarragon. After all, my German ancestors, called this herb the bean herb!

Use whatever canned beans you have on hand. Make it several days ahead of time, because marinating in the fridge just continues to improve the flavor. If you are fortunate enough to have fresh herbs on hand, pay attention to the amounts, as it takes more fresh herbs to equal the flavor of dried.

5 Bean Salad

Print recipe
Serves 12-20
Prep time 10 minutes
Dietary Gluten Free, Vegetarian
Meal type Salad
Misc Child Friendly, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Occasion Casual Party
From book Salads, Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers 1950's
My 5-Bean salad comes from a 4-bean salad recipe in a vintage spiral-bound cookbook of home economics teachers' favorite recipes.

Ingredients

  • 5 cans Beans (Drained. Suggested beans: wax beans, green beans, garbanzos, kidney beans, black beans)
  • 1 green pepper (Sliced thinly in rings)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup vinegar
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil (Olive oil not suggested as it solidifies at cold temperature)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (Seasoned salt if you wish)
  • 2 tablespoons dried parsley (or 1/4 Cup fresh parsley diced)
  • 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves (Or 1 T fresh summer savory leaves)
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves (Or 1 T fresh basil leaves)

Optional

  • 1 onion (Mild. Sliced thinly)

Directions

Vegetables
1. Drain beans, and rinse black beans and kidney beans. Dump in very large bowl.
2. Add sliced green peppers and sliced onions (if you use them). Red Bell peppers make a nice presentation, or use both red and green.
3. Stir together all remaining ingredients until dry mustard is well dissolved. Pour over vegetables. Cover and refrigerate a day or more before serving.

Note

I called this one 5- Bean Salad but feel free to use what you have on hand. Italian green beans, pinto beans, navy beans, white beans--anything goes. The important thing is the tasty dressing and the marination time for the bean salad.

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