Jordan Rolls Southern Family Recipe
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.
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.
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.
Measure your sugar, salt, 2 cups flour, and yeast into a bowl.
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.
Like so.
Flash was on in this picture so if it looks a little whiter that is why.
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!
And mix them up in there.
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 the remaining flour.
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…
Stir that up good.
It’s going to look like a lumpy blob when you’re done.
Cover that with a towel and let it sit for twenty minutes.
After twenty minutes, it’s going to look like an even bigger lumpy blob.
This is good. You have done well, grasshopper.
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.
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
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 a pizza cutter.
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.
Spray one 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
Arrange in pan and spray tops lightly with cooking spray.
Cover with towel and let rise for twenty minutes.
~~~~~~~~
METHOD 2 For Jordan Rolls
Pat your dough out into a circle, about twelve inches in diameter.
With a pizza cutter, cut the circle into sixteen pieces.
Spray two 9×13 inch pans with cooking spray.
Roll each triangle up beginning on the big end and rolling towards the point.
Like so.
Space them out a bit and put them in two 9×13 pans.
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 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.
Method #1
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.
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
Nutrition
You may also like these rolls recipes:
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.
Christy, I can’t wait to try these. I wrote this in your facebook last night when I saw the recipe on there so just in case I would like to put it here. Your recipes are wonderful but your stories just touch my heart. I feel like when I’m reading them that they are from a cousin or someone close; not from someone three states to the east that I’ll never even meet or talk to. You are absolutely a gifted story teller. May God continue to bless you with your many gifts! Thanks again for touching my soul and making me enjoy cooking again!
I have to confess that after cooking for 40-something years, baking yeast breads have not been my thing. This recipe may convert me! I have been off radar getting my lovely youngest daughter married, so haven’t posted for a while. Christy honey, you couldn’t run your SP Family off with a stick, so you just write away and God bless you.
BTW did you know they make “new-fangled” pizza cutters especially for non stick pans? Chas got one at one of her showers. Goes to show you can teach an old dog new tricks!
The rolls look awesome and the recipe doable. I can’t wait to try them as I love homemade bread. Thank you for all you do!!
Dearest Christy,
I too LOVE your blogs and they make me laugh and remember when my kids were young. I married at 17 (crazy girl), a year later I had my son and then 2 girls one every other year. When my kids were 2, 4 and 6 I divorced and became a single parent. My kids ask me often, Mom how DID you do it? I worked full time and held a second a couple months of year for Christmas money and attended school, sports, PTA and all other functions. I can remember calling their father and saying “Can you PUHHLLLEASE keep the kids some weekend so I can have a break?? Well, on the rare occasion that he did I would be crying and missing them by Saturday evening! The house was quiet and how can you multi task when there is nothing to multiply the tasks???
I always keep a “perpetual” grocery list on my counter and add stuff as I run out to make shopping easier. My son would go behind me and add “pizza” (or piza) after every line. I would go to the store with a list of 100 items 40 of which was always pizza!! I miss those little scribbles of pizza now… Enjoy them and don’t ask how you do it cause you really already know you do it cause you luv and em and wouldn’t know what to do without em!
Sorry for the long note, you know us southern girls cain’t tell a short story!
Hugs,
Debbi
Thanks for the “interruptions” reminder – that’s a word inspired by God for certain.
I want to try this roll recipe, probably with a little whole wheat to make it more righteous 🙂 I think reading the pizza cutter tip was worth the whole post – though the whole post was worth reading the whole post.
These rolls look good. Another bookmarked recipe from your site!
Your less complicated version actually looks nicer to me! I love how they’re all golden and glistening. Looks delicious.