Aunt Edith’s no-fuss rolls a family favorite
SEATTLE — When I was a child, my family often visited Aunt Edith’s — my mom’s aunt and the de facto matriarch of that side of the family.
I fondly remember many things about Aunt Edith’s house, including a magical push-button countertop range, separate from the oven set in the kitchen wall.
There was always a bowl of hard candy, to which children could help themselves. The house always smelled, tantalizingly, like the dinner to come.
Dinner happened at a specified time, not just whenever it was ready, at the table with its linens instead of paper napkins, and its pretty china.
Aunt Edith’s cooking was different from ours — we had pesto, she had pot roast. She made things such as deviled eggs, wiggly and delicious, and twice-baked potatoes, ethereally creamy and piped with fluted edges back into their jackets.
When, as a grown-up, I admired her dinner rolls — simple, tender, always served warm with butter — she was delighted. “They’re so easy!” she said. And she wrote out the recipe on an index card, with “Rolls Good + Easy,” in her perfect cursive at the top, the words underlined for emphasis.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, in order. (I like to give it a stir after the milk to get the yeast thinking, then after the egg to combine; I also like to sift the flour.
Beat with a spoon until glossy (if it gets sticky, you can use your hands to knead gently).
Let rise (in a warm place, covered with a clean dish towel) until double in bulk, about one hour.
Stir down and divide into buttered muffin tin — grease fingers and roll smooth off spoon. (To get them all the same-ish size, I pull the dough in half, then divide each half in two again, then into thirds for 12 rolls. If you want to get fancy, you can divide each individual roll-ball into thirds and nest them together in the muffin-tin compartment, so each roll pulls apart into three lobes when eaten.)
Let rise again about a halfhour to top of muffin cups. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush top with melted butter. (Here, Aunt Edith offers a forgiving parenthetical: “I don’t bother.”)
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. (Serve warm with lots of butter!)