Welcome to the second week of Vintage Kitchen, where I’m making recipes from old cookbooks. Some of them are family heirlooms, some are not. This week, I pulled a recipe for breakfast out of the cookbook my Great-Grandma Ella left me when she passed away. The cookbook reminds me of her kitchen, and the things I learned in it from her, and of the Grange with the ladies quilting.
One of the reasons I chose today’s recipe – besides that it was breakfast time and I was hungry – was that it reminded me strongly of the Sticky Buns my Dad used to make from time to time. I don’t think he ever used a recipe, but they were always memorable, and the pan was darn near impossible to clean afterward, with all the sticky!
The Grange recipe doesn’t specify a pan size, but once I saw how much dough it made, I was able to decide that a 12″ cast iron skillet would be just about right for the number of buns it would make. Also, it’s perfect for melting the butter, honey, and nuts together before putting in the rolls. I popped it in the 425 oven about ten minutes (no more) before I baked the rolls up.
The bottom of the pan – becoming top of rolls when turned out onto a plate – was super sticky, almost like candy in consistency as it cooled and hardened. But the rolls were not as sweet as we initially thought they would be. I used chopped walnuts for this recipe.
I know it says 12 rolls. Ignore it. Mine made 8 and they were good sized but not huge. Or maybe it’s a difference of 70 years and expectations about food. The recipe below is the printable version with my added notes to it. You can find process photos here, along with other photos of the Vintage Kitchen series.
Vintage Kitchen: Glazed Honey Rolls
Ingredients
- 3 c flour
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 6 tbsp shortening (I used lard)
- 1 c milk
- 1 c honey (divide in half)
- 3 tbsp butter (divide in 1 and 2 tbsp aliquots)
- cinnamon (I think roughly 2 tsp)
- 1/3 c raisins (I omitted them, some people in this family won’t eat them!)
- 1 c walnut meats (you could use pecans, or…)
Instructions
- Sift flour, measure, and sift again with baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening (I use a pastry blender, but you could rub the fat in with your fingers, or a fork) until fine, add milk, mixing only enough to moisten flour. Toss onto lightly floured board; knead lightly for a few seconds; pat of roll into 1/2 inch thickness. Spread 1/2 cup of honey thinly over the surface. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon; dot with 2 tablespoons of butter; sprinkle with currants or raisins; rolls as for jelly roll, and cut into one inch (I did more like 2 inches) slices. Heat remaining butter and honey in baking pan until butter is melted; sprinkle nuts over pan; and place rolls in honey mixture, cut side up (both sides are cut? Not sure what this was supposed to mean). Bake in hot ove (425 degrees) 30 minutes or until done. Remove from pan, glazed side up (I put a plate on top of my skillet, used potholders to grasp the sides firmly, and inverted the whole thing). Makes 12 large rolls (or 8 large rolls, relative).
- Recipe by: Louise Hugg, Cama Valley Grange, Douglas County.
The First Reader wasn’t overcome with joy at this recipe – he prefers his biscuits savory. I enjoyed it – the rolls came out very fluffy and the topping was nice. But it’s something I’d save for a special occasion rather than do very often. And I’ll always think of Dad when I make it!
Comments
2 responses to “Vintage Kitchen: Glazed Honey Rolls”
Yum, rolled biscuits/quick cinnamon rolls. I’ll have to try this one out. Thank you for going through these vintage recipes for us.
I think the cut side up refers to putting the spiral facing up, rather than on edge, like a sliced jelly roll or rugelach. Funny the details they include, vs. the ones they leave out. Makes you wonder if there are other similar recipes that would be baked on-edge, so to speak.
Oh, good point. It hadn’t even occurred to me to put them in like that, but I can see it now.
These are about 2-3 hours quicker than my raised cinnamon rolls 😀