Welcome to Grandma’s Recipe Box!
A place where we can share treasured family recipes and the stories behind them
Part of being a Midwestern girl usually involves cooking, baking, and generally just puttering around in the kitchen. And I definitely do all of those things.
I love to create meals and treats for my family. For me, it’s just one way of showing them that I love them. And I think they kinda love it too. Because of this, one of my favorite things to do is serve dishes created from recipes that were used by my grandma (and maybe her mother or grandmother before her). My grandma was my very favorite person. We were so close, and she meant the world to me. The times I spent at her home in Deloit, Iowa (just about five miles outside of Denison) were the best times of my youth.
She left us when I was only 18 – way too soon. But she is always in my heart, and I also want to keep her in the hearts of my children and grandchildren. So one of the ways I do this is to make Grandma Noodles (homemade chicken and noodles) and Butterhorn Rolls (homemade crescent rolls) for our family holidays, using her recipes. These have become family favorites, and no Christmas is official without the Noodles. And I’ve been told no one would even come to Thanksgiving dinner if I didn’t have Butterhorns on the table.
I know almost every one of you has recipes and stories that mean just as much to you, too. So I’ve opened up this space to give us a place where we can all share those edible gems and the stories that live behind them. If you’d like to share something that brings you and your family comfort, please join in (how to do this is noted below).
To get this new column started, I will jump in first with the recipe for those delectable Butterhorn Rolls. Yes, they involve yeast and rising times. And LOTS of butter! And worth every minute spent creating them. (And when you are the baker, the reward is that you get to take a warm roll right out of the oven, smear even more butter all over it, and relax into the deliciousness of homemade bread with melty butter.)
These Butterhorns were a staple at every Thanksgiving dinner we had at my grandma’s house. She had a little two-bedroom house with a kitchen, dining room, living room, one bathroom, and a screened-in front porch. How all 23 of us in the family fit into that house at once is a mystery to me now, but at the time it seemed to work out just fine.
Anyway, back to the Butterhorns. When I was around 16, for some reason, I realized that someone needed to keep the tradition of these rolls going. And besides, I loved to bake and I wanted to learn how to make them. To contribute to the family Thanksgiving meal and take at least one thing off the long list of dishes my grandma prepared for our holiday. And baking bread with my grandma was a tradition. I started learning about bread-baking with her when I was little and it was make-the-bread day at her house. Before she would get to work on her bread project, she (very wisely and probably as an act of self-preservation I realize now) would set me up at the little kitchen table with my own ingredients and a tiny custard cup “pan” so I could make a little bread of my own. Well, let me tell you, those little breads came out hard as a rock every time, of course, but over the years I learned to perfect the kneading process and to be considerate of the dough and learn from the clues it gave me as I worked with it.
After making bread with her during my childhood, it came as no surprise that when I asked my grandma for her Butterhorn recipe, that it came to me as really a non-recipe. You know, done in Grandma Speak: sift in flour until you think it’s enough, use some butter, roll it out about this big, bake them until they’re done. That kind of thing. But persevering, I got out a piece of paper and wrote down what she said. Luckily, I could work on translating it the next time I helped her make the rolls.
So this recipe is as exact as I can get it. The flour amount can differ depending on the brand being used, and towards the end of adding it in, you just know when it’s enough. Trust me – you will know.
BUTTERHORN ROLLS
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable shortening, cut into small cubes
½ cup sugar
2 packages yeast – soaked in ½ cup warm water before adding (I use rapid-rise yeast)
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons salt
At least one stick of (real) butter, softened
4 – 6 cups of flour
Combine milk, shortening, and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat on medium heat, stirring a little, until milk reaches a temperature of 120° to 130° and shortening has melted (these things usually happen at the same time, in case you don’t have a thermometer). Cool mixture to lukewarm and then pour into a large bowl. Add in the eggs, salt, and yeast (with water), and whisk lightly until yeast has dissolved.
Sift 2 cups of flour into mixture and stir to combine. Continue to sift flour and add until the dough can be lifted and turned without falling apart. (I usually stop using a spoon and use my hands to mix in the flour about half-way through adding in the flour.) Then put the dough into a large, greased bowl and flip it over, ensuring the top is greased also. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise in a warm place (I preheat the oven and set it on top of the stove) until double in size.
Now divide the dough into two even pieces and set one aside. Flour the countertop, take one piece of dough, and roll it into a circle about 12” across. Melt some of the butter and brush all over the circle of dough. Using a sharp knife (I use a pizza cutter – works great), cut into about 16 pie-shaped pieces. Starting at the wide end, roll up each triangle to form the roll. Place rolls (tip side down) onto an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with more melted butter. Repeat with the other half of dough. (It takes three cookie sheets to get them all on.)
Cover the rolls with a clean cloth and let them rise until they are double in size (this doesn’t take long). Once risen, bake one sheet at a time in a 400° oven for 9-10 minutes until lightly browned and done.
(Immediately take one for yourself, slice it open, mush in some butter, and enjoy – and you don’t have to tell anyone that you did this!)
(These also make great tiny leftover-turkey sandwiches in the days following Thanksgiving.)
My oldest daughter loves these rolls and kind of hoards them. But when I asked her recently if she’d like to learn to make them, she was not so excited about that. So…I jumped a generation and asked her 9-year-old daughter if she’d like to help me make the Butterhorns next Thanksgiving, and she was all over it. She is excited to learn, and I am excited and grateful that these rolls will continue on as a tradition in our family.
If you make these rolls, I hope you enjoy them and maybe send a little love my grandma’s way. And to all the grandmas who make homemade dishes for their families. Thank you for being a part of this new space where we can share the joy and comfort of treasured family dishes and the stories that go with them. If you’d like to contribute a recipe and story, please send me an email at ourgrandmasrecipebox@gmail.com
Welcome, Connie, and thanks for the remembrances and the recipe. I enjoyed the former and eagerly anticipate the latter (just don't tell my cardiologist). I'm looking forward to reading your posts in the future!
Welcome to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Connie! So glad you’re here. And I look forward to recipes from your family—and other heirloom recipes from your readers. Cheers!