"Pam's Homemade Potato Rolls"

I used to make these rolls for family reunions, anniversaries, but never for church because of the time it took and the larger the quantity the longer it took. For the most part, I always got a lot of compliments on these rolls, so delicious! They are a big hit no matter how many generations go by. This is quite the extensive recipe but, it's worth it.

Recipe

1 package active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water(105-115 degrees)

1 cup unseasoned lukewarm mashed potatoes

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup shortening

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp salt

6 to 7 cups all-purpose flour(if your using self-rising flour omit salt)

Baking Directions

Make mashed potatoes first, unseasoned.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl. Stir in potatoes, sugar, shortening, eggs, salt and 3 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in a greased large bowl turned greased side up. Cover bowl tightly and refrigerate at least 8 hours but, no longer than 5 days if you are not going to use it right away. Otherwise, do not refrigerate, cover with a cup towel and let rise for 1 hour. Punch down dough and divide it in half. Roll the dough into a rectangle about 13x9 inches on the floured surface. Place in greased oblong pan about 13x9x2 inches. Cut dough into smaller rectangles each about 3x2 1/2 inches. Brush with softened butter or margarine. Let rise for 1 hour again. Repeat this with the other half of your dough.

Heat oven to 400 degrees; bake for 25 minutes.

Makes about 15 rolls per pan.

When they come out of the oven you may want to brush them with a little butter again.

This is just a basic refrigerator dough that you can do a lot with. Especially, if you have a big dinner party coming up and you know your not going to have enough time that day or the day before to do this.

The fact that you can store the dough in the fridge ahead of time really helped me out a lot! When you get it out of the fridge, though, it needs to adjust; so be sure to take it out of the sealed container and put it in a room temperature greased bowl,greased side up, cover with a cup towel and put it in a warm place. An oven with a pilot light works best but, if you don't have that, on top of the fridge works nicely too!

Just remember, it needs to rise 1 hour, punch down, shape your rolls,then rise again. It will rise in the fridge a little; that's why you need a sealed container.

Good Memories

The best memories I have of this is the time I made them for an anniversary. It was a 50th wedding anniversary so it was family and very special. There were people there I didn't even know but, they were quickly made aware about the person that made the rolls. They were astonished at how young I was and that I had the talent to make these rolls. Usually, by tradition, these kind of rolls are made by seasoned woman of their golden years. Well, this is the very way that I had learned because of these women at my old church long ago.