Jordan Rolls Southern Family Recipe

Hot from the oven, Jordan Rolls

This is my personal roll recipe, that I serve whenever an occasion calls for them. They are pretty easy as far as yeast breads go and I hope your family will enjoy them as much as mine does. I especially like to make them whenever I bake a ham, using the leftover rolls and ham to make little sandwiches with the next day.

ingredients

Recipe Ingredients:

  • All purpose flour
  • Sugar
  • Salt
  • Yeast
  • Vegetable shortening
  • Two eggs
  • Melted butter

You’re also going to need some hot water and aren’t we fortunate to be able to just go get that out of the sink?

Lots of folks don’t have such luxuries.

yeast

What Kind of Yeast Should I Use?

I don’t like to use packets of yeast because I have the patience of a nervous lizard so I use the jar yeast which can be purchased beside the packets.

This way I just measure it out. The back of the jar will tell you how many teaspoons equal a packet. In this case I’m going to use four and a half teaspoons.

I’m going to just put the packet measurements at the bottom, though, because that is what most people use.

This little jar will keep forever if you put it in your fridge but I usually go through a few each year – at least.

combine salt, flour, and yeast

Measure your sugar, salt, 2 cups flour, and yeast into a bowl.

cut in shortening

Cut in shortening with a long tined fork.

You can use a fancy pastry cutter if you want to but that’s just one more thing to clutter up my kitchen so I got rid of it years ago.

After you get your shortening cut up in there real good, add your eggs.

add eggs

Like so.

Flash was on in this picture so if it looks a little whiter that is why.

beat eggs

Beat up your eggs a bit.

I know they didn’t do anything to ya but sometimes things like this happen with no provocation.

Those eggs were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Beat ’em!

mix in eggs

And mix them up in there.

add melted butter

Now we add our melted butter.  You want to melt this and then give it time to cool so that it isn’t too hot.

A Good Rule of Thumb For The Liquid Ingredients

The thing about yeast breads that is most tricky to folks is getting their liquid ingredients the right temperature. A good rule of thumb that has always served me well has been to make sure liquids are about the temperature as baby’s bath water. Yes, I stick my finger in the melted butter, it doesn’t hurt anyone.

If it’s as warm as a baby’s bath water, but not hot, then it is a great temperature.

add flour

Add the remaining flour.

add in water

and the water, again making sure the water is the temperature of baby’s bath water.

If you don’t know what temperature a baby’s bath water is then you could always go borrow a dirty baby, I suppose…

combine to make doughStir that up good.

It’s going to look like a lumpy blob when you’re done.

cover and let rise

Cover that with a towel and let it sit for twenty minutes.

risen dough

After twenty minutes, it’s going to look like an even bigger lumpy blob.

This is good. You have done well, grasshopper.

turn onto floured surface

Now we need to flour a surface and pour our blob out onto it.

I just put out a sheet of waxed paper to save cleanup and sprinkle a good bit of flour over it so my dough doesn’t stick.

knead dough

You need to knead..

~pauses and reads that again~ That just looks funny…

How To Knead Dough

Okay, so you need to knead your dough a time or two and what I do is just put some flour on your hands, press the dough into a ball, and then smoosh it out with the heel of your hand. Then put it into a ball again and smoosh it out again with the heel of your hand.

Then wonder what crazy person decided to call that part of your hand a heel because that makes no sense at all to me.

From here there are two ways you can go with these rolls.

Okay so in reality there are countless ways you can go with this but I am going to show you the two ways that I use.

I’ll start with my favorite and the less maintenance one.

My favorite Method for Rolls #1

shape dough into rectangle

After kneading your dough two or three times, shape it into a rectangle.

If this doesn’t look like a perfect rectangle to you then squint your eyes until it does…

cut into strips with pizza cutter

Cut into strips with a pizza cutter.

cut crosswise to form squares

And then cut cross wise.

I like this method best because it’s easy and ends up yielding larger and smaller rolls which seem to suit company better anyway.

prepare pan

Spray one 9×13 pan with cooking spray.

arrange rolls in prepared pan

Arrange in pan and spray tops lightly with cooking spray.

Cover with towel and let rise for twenty minutes.

~~~~~~~~

METHOD 2 For Jordan Rolls

Method 2 roll dough into circle

Pat your dough out into a circle, about twelve inches in diameter.

cut dough into wedges

With a pizza cutter, cut the circle into sixteen pieces.

prepare pan

Spray two 9×13 inch pans with cooking spray.

roll wedges to form crescent rolls

Roll each triangle up beginning on the big end and rolling towards the point.

roll to form crescents

Like so.

space apart on pans

Space them out a bit and put them in two 9×13 pans.

spray lightly with cooking spray

I spray the tops lightly with more cooking spray to have prettier rolls when they are done baking and to help prevent them from sticking in the next step.

cover with towels and let rise

Cover with a towel and place in a warm place for another twenty minutes.

note: My oven is not on in this pic.

After twenty minutes, preheat oven (without rolls in it) to 350.

Bake for about twenty five minutes. Brush with melted butter or margarine when done.

bake rolls

Method #1

bake crescents

Method #2

They both look mighty good to me.  Imagine breaking them apart and adding some butter inside and just watch it melt as you take a bite.

Jordan Rolls

This is my personal roll recipe, that I serve whenever an occasion calls for them. They are pretty easy as far as yeast breads go and I hope your family will enjoy them as much as mine does. I especially like to make them whenever I bake a ham, using the leftover rolls and ham to make little sandwiches with the next day.
Prep Time: 50 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: American
Keyword: rolls
Servings: 4
Calories: 196kcal

Ingredients

  • 1/2 C solid vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 C Sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 pkg fast acting yeast**
  • 5 C all purpose flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 stick butter melted (plus more for brushing baked rolls with)
  • 1 1/2 C warm water like a baby’s bath temperature, this is key with working with yeast

Instructions

  • Place sugar, salt, 2 cups of flour, and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Cut in shortening with a long tined fork.
  • Add eggs, beating lightly with fork before stirring them in. Add remaining flour, melted butter, and water. Stir together well. Mixture will look like a big old lumpy blob.
  • Cover with a dish towel and let sit in a warm place for twenty minutes.
  • After 20 minutes, turn out onto a floured surface. Sprinkle flour over the top and knead three or four times.
  • Pat out into a square that is about 3/4 inch thick (or see method #2 above). Cut into squares with a pizza cutter.
  • Place in greased 9×13 pan and cover with towel. Let rise another 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until tops are golden.
  • Brush hot rolls with additional melted butter.

Notes

**Note: I use a fast acting or "rapid rise" yeast. It is perfectly alright to use regular yeast, your rolls will just need longer to rise.

Nutrition

Calories: 196kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

 

You may also like these rolls recipes:

Spoon Rolls Southern Style

Ten Minute Rolls

Pizza Rolls! Who wants the weekend off from cooking??

Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls Quick and Easy

 

“Strength comes from the inside,

but must be fed on the outside to be able to grow.”

-Richard Manintveld

Submitted by his loving wife, Deidra. Submit your quote here. Gain motivation and encouragement here as well.

 

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263 Comments

  1. I can’t wait to try these. I have always had a thing for good yeast rolls. Guess it reminds me of the smell of yeast rolls cooking in the school lunch room back in the day when the food was made from scratch. Remember watching the lunchroom ladies, snapping pole beans early in the morning to have for lunch. But the rolls, were the best. I have never used the bottled yeast but I am going to try it. I love the picture of you, mom and MIL. There is nothing more sacred than seeing southern women in the kitchen with our aprons on and our best baked dishes. Wish I had some right now.

  2. I have made these several times and they tasted great, but were heavy and didn’t rise well. so, i reread the instructions and the comments. I made sure my eggs, shortening, and butter were room temp(not to hot or cold) and I kneaded a few more times… this time they were great and rose well both times. There are only 2 of us and this makes so many rolls. After they cool, I put them in large ziplock bags and refrigerate them. Then 10 minutes before supper I take 2 out and put them in my toaster oven on a small deep dish cooking stone @ 350 degrees and they are great. We are watching our weight and they would not help at all if I had 2! But I look forward to having them with my supper, my little treat! 🙂
    Thanks for the pics and leaving ppl’s comments up too. That is where I found the ‘fix’ I needed to make these properly.
    Love all your recipe’s I have made (lots of them!).

  3. Christy, can the Jordan rolls be made ahead of time? Can they be frozen? I want to serve them Christmas day, but there won’t be enough time to make them that day!

    Thanks for your wonderful recipes!

    Connie

  4. Christy, I made these for the second time today for Thanksgiving because they’re so good and easy. I accidentally streamlined the recipe and made it even easier though! I made it in my KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment and accidentally dumped in all 5 cups of flour right at the beginning. Used the mixer to cut in the shortening. Then I just cracked the eggs right in and mixed them up a bit, then poured in the butter in a stream while the mixer was running. Could not be easier! After rising, I kneaded the dough in the bowl (found it didn’t need extra flour), just patted it out in the baking dish, and cut the rolls in the baking dish then separated them slightly. We went to a friend’s house for dinner and they loved the rolls. So do I :o)

  5. I made these for thanksgiving dinner and they were a huge hit!! Thank you Christy for sharing so much of yourself us!

  6. Can’t wait to try the rolls. I love making yeast rolls and I’m always looking for a new recipe to try. Can I get you Mom’s Velvet Cake recipe?? Thanks

  7. Can these roll be made and frozen. I would love to make them Thanksgiving.I do the main cooking for our dinner and everyone brings a dish. So I don’t have a lot of time to make bread. I use to make home made rolls every year just got to be too much. My family loves the home made rolls.
    thanks

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