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.
Thank You!! I have tried and failed so many times with yeast and your tip about baby bath water was grand!!! I think my husband fell a little more in love with me because of these rolls!! Gotta cut em’ a little smaller next time though, hehe, the roll in the middle was about the size of a small plate!! Thanks again your blogs are so helpful and entertaining!!
Hello everyone. I hope that everyone is having a good day. I really enjoy this wesite. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. The step by step that you do is awesome, so helpful to me. I made the Jordan rolls. They took longer to bake than the recipe called for , about ten minutes longer. I liked how the rolls came out diffrent sizes. If you are looking for a light fluffy roll then these are not them, as they are very heavy. I knew by the look on my husbands face weather he liked them or not. He tilted his head back , rolled his eyes and said OH MY. After two days and him eating ten of the fifteen rolls he told me that I shouldnt make them anymore because he liked them to much, of course He meant please keep baking these rolls YUMMY. The rolls remind me of some that my mom used to make. I am so glad I found this recipe on here, it is definitely a keeper. I made honey butter to put on them and that made them even more awesome. I am so glad I found this site. Please keep those recipes coming.
Thanks so much
Jill
HI MISS JORDAN,
MY AWESOME SISTER SHERELL DOLNEY,FROM MADISON, AL. REFERED ME TO YOUR WEB SITE ALL I CAN SAY, LOVE THE PHOTO`S STEP BY STEP! AWESOME IDEA, SOME OF US GIRLS CAN REALLY LEARN BETTER BY WATCHING, BETTER THAN A COOKBOOK I THINK. SHE HAS REALLY BEEN ENJOYING COOKING NOW, I SEE WHY. CAN`T WAIT TO GET MY SELF IN THE KITCHEN AND WHIP THESE LITTLE ROLLS (JORDAN ROLLS) UP MY SELF.I WAS SEARCHING FOR A QUICK YEAST ROLL FOR MY HUSBAND. HE LIKES TO HAVE BREAD EVERY MEAL, JUST LIKE A SOUTHERN MAN
BEST WISHES,
KAREN HUNTER
Good mornin everyone, I hope that you are all having a good day. I just took a pan of bread pudding out of the oven I am getting ready to put a pan of Jordan Rolls in soon. My house is nice and warm and smells wonderful. This is my first try with the rolls, I will let you know how they turn out. Happy Baking Everyone.
Christy, I tried to make these tonight for dinner. They didn’t rise hardly at all the first 20 minutes. It has been 20 more minutes since I have cut them out, and still they look the same. What did I do wrong? I stuck my finger in the water and margarine, and neither one felt too hot. I used a brand new bag of flour and new yeast I recently bought. I am so disappointed. I am going to let them sit a little while longer and HOPE they rise. I’ll go ahead and cook them, but am doubtful they will be good. I REALLY wanted to have success at making a yeast bread!
Hey Lynn!
I understand your disappointment completely. Let me start by saying that I’ve actually baked these before without letting them rise at all (it was an accident and a long story..) and they were still good. Having said that, lets see if we can’t figure out what happened here and let me assure you first of all that you did everything right and it’s not your fault!
What brand is your yeast and what is the date on the package? Even if it isn’t expired, you *may* have gotten a bad batch.
Also, is it cold where you live? The eggs were likely cold when you added them and if your house was cold as well that might have made them slower (as in death crawl at times) to rise. I’d try turning your oven on 300 for two or three minutes, turning it off, and then setting the rolls inside.
I hope this helps! If they still don’t rise, cook them anyway and don’t tell anyone 🙂
Gratefully,
Christy
I did go ahead and bake them and they did taste good, just very dense. My egg was probably cold. I will remember to take it out and get it to room temperature next time. I love homemade rolls, so I will definitely try it again. I live in Georgia, so it is a little cold here, but I thought about that before I made them. I had my oven on warm while I mixed everything so that I could put the dough in the oven after I was done (I did turn it off before I put them in too). So, I was trying to take into account the weather here as well. Thanks for all your help!
Christy, I’ve been thinking I’d comment here and tell you how much housework you’ve kept me from doing in the past week while I’ve been reading all of the great recipes you have on Southern Plate. I only discovered you last week and I’ve already made several of your recipes . . . Puddin’ Poke Cake, Strawberry Lemonade, and Jordan Rolls tonight! When I read on an earlier post that you’re concerned about losing readers, I thought I’d assure you that you have nothing to worry about. Your recipes are fabulous and you are hilarious! I’m in South Carolina, born and raised, and everything you write about is so familiar to me. Keep the posts coming as you can and I guess my house will continue to suffer until I catch up on all of the recipes I’ve been missing, but my husband and children will thank you for the great food!
I’m replying to myself here, not sure why . . . But I wanted to tell you the rolls turned out GREAT! Can’t wait to make them again!
Can’t wait to try this recipe. You make everything seem so simple and love those step by step pics!