Vintage Copycat School Cafeteria Yeast Rolls

When I was just a toddler I knew a boy whose name was Jerry. He grew up and joined the navy and after he served his time in the military, he got a job working for the railroad. Now, almost 70 years later, he will call me and remissness about the good ole days growing up in a small south western town.He generally repeats these stories quite often. He has made it clear he misses the school cafeteria Thursday yeast rolls!

He has written the school once and I have also but we have never received a reply. I finally called the school district to inquire about them and they connected me to the nutritionist who told me they no longer have that recipe and even if they did the ingredient amounts were massive and would be difficult to replicate in small batches. She did tell me that the rolls were made from scratch in the kitchen of the cafeteria. That made sense because Jerry told me he could smell the fresh baked rolls while he was in the classroom and it made him very hungry!

I was just interested in the ingredients and decided to try to create a recipe that might mimic the rolls by concentrating on the quality of the ingredients. Almost all food products have changed in flavor and nutritional value over the years so I was bent on finding the best quality available in our small town and make a yeast bread roll using the finest ingredients.

The journey begins . . .

Step 1: Pantry Ingredients for Vintage Copycat Recipes

Farming and Agriculture has changed so much over the last fifty years. The industry has learned many ways to reduce the amount of time it takes for the food to reach the market. In doing so, it reduced the final cost to the consumer but by sacrificing the nutritional value of the final product.The process of milling the wheat by rolling caused a great stir but eventually became the acceptable way.

We now have ultra ultra pasteurized milk and cream, all kinds of chemicals are used for farming produce, hormones are given to animals, fake meat production, and hey, we can't forget Gmo's! So basically the food production has increase but the quality has decreased and there are a lot of people struggling with health issues and over weight problems.

I stumbled across an article "Bleached vs Unbleached Flour" by Organics and recommend it for everyone to read.

Originally I wanted to try out a method called autolyse . Unfortunately I got side tracked and had already added the salt to the flour mixture when I remembered I wanted to try the autolyse technique. I will definitely give it a go the next time I bake bread.

I have read where cooks have mentioned they have a vintage recipe that their family used to make and even though they follow the recipe precisely they never get the same results. I think the problem might be the ingredients they used. When baking recipes for vintage recipes I believe the best results for success; is using ingredients that come the closest to what was used at that time.

Step 2: School Cafeteria Yeast Roll Recipe

Cafeteria Yeast Roll Recipe:

2 Large Organic pasture raised -free range eggs

1/4 Cup unsalted organic grass fed butter ( reduce salt in recipe if using salted butter by 1/2 teaspoon).

1 Tablespoon Organic extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 Cups Organic Grass fed milk (regular pasteurized milk if you can find it or whole raw milk).

2 1/2 teaspoons Active dry yeast ( If I could have found organic yeast, I would have tried it instead of this).

1/3 Cup Organic cane sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons real salt (real salt is a type of sea salt with only 1 ingredient). Use 1 teaspoon if using salted butter.

4 Cups Unbleached Organic bread flour ( I used organic unbleached AP flour because stores were sold out of yeast and healthy bread flour.

Utensils: 9 x 13 x 2 cake pan, mixing bowls, measuring spoons/cups,whisk, mixing spoon, spatula, plastic wrap, dish towel,and kitchen thermometer.

Step 3: Measure Ingredients and Set Up Work Station

Here is the recipe amounts again so you can double check to make sure you have everything:

2 Large Organic pasture raised -free range eggs

1/4 Cup softened unsalted organic grass fed butter

1 Tablespoon Organic extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 Cups Organic Grass fed milk (regular organic grass fed pasteurized milk if you can find it or whole raw milk). You will be using 1/4 cup of this for the yeast mixture.

2 1/2 teaspoons Active dry yeast ( If I could have found organic yeast, I would have tried it instead of this).

1/3 Cup Organic cane sugar (you will be using 1 teaspoon of this for the yeast mixture.

1 1/2 teaspoons real salt (real salt is a type of sea salt with only 1 ingredient). Use 1 teaspoon if using salted butter.

4 Cups Unbleached Organic AP flour ( whisk the flour before measuring and spoon the flour into the measuring cup. ( I used organic unbleached AP flour because the stores were sold out of yeast and healthy bread flour. This recipe would have been even better using organic bread flour because bread flour contains more protein and gluten than AP flour .You might need to add more milk if using bread flour.

Utensils: 9 x 13 x 2 cake pan, mixing bowls, measuring spoons/cups,whisk, mixing spoon,and kitchen thermometer.

Step 4: Getting Started

Add yeast and sugar to a bowl ( use 1 teaspoon sugar from the pre-measured cup of sugar).

Heat the milk to 110 degrees F and add 1/4 cup of the warm milk to the yeast/sugar mixture and stir until the ingredients are dissolved.

Set the mixture aside for about 5 minutes to proof.

If you haven't already whisked the flour, do so now and using a spoon fill the measuring cup and level it off.

Place into a large bowl.

Whisk in the remaining salt and sugar. Add the remaining milk, one egg, oil, yeast mixture and softened butter. Mix thoroughly. Oil bowl and add a little oil to the dough and place into the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel. Allow to rest for fifteen minutes.

Step 5: Oil Pan and Knead Mixture

Oil the cake pan and flour the work space.

Gently deflate the dough.

Gently knead the dough folding over a few times flouring as needed.

Roll out the dough.

Cut and Divide into 12 even pieces.

Shape into balls and place into oiled pan.

Cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel and place pan in a warm draft free area until

double in size.

Step 6: Bake Cut and Cool

When the rolls have doubled in size, pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove the wrap and whisk the remaining egg and gently brush the roll tops with the egg.

Bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes when the tops of the rolls are light brown. Remove from oven and allow the pan to cool slightly before gently cutting the seams of the rolls for easy removal using a spatula. Set hot rolls on a wire rack if you have one.I generally use the cutting board and rotate them until they are completely cooled.

Although these rolls were made for my brother, I removed one from the batch and split it with my husband to test the results. We loved them! Unfortunately we are on wheat restricted diets. I was disappointed I did not have enough flour to make my brother a couple of batches to freeze. I will probably make more when I can find wheat bread flour and yeast again. There seems to be a shortage, I guess because people are home and baking fresh bread. I plan to make the dough to freeze so he can have fresh baked rolls when he is in the mood for them.

When the rolls are completely cooled, I place them into a zip lock freezer bag to store.

Step 7: Final Thoughts

When the rolls were removed from the oven and cool enough to bag, I Immediately called Jerry, my brother and there was no answer. I was disappointed because I wanted to surprise him with freshly baked rolls right from the oven. I phoned him several times with no success. I grabbed the rolls and headed to his house in hopes he would be there when I arrived. He was sitting on the front porch and a big smile was on his face when he saw my pick up. I walked up to him and he asked me what I had in the box. I answered by saying please sit down and hear my story before I tell you. I explained how I planned this for a couple of weeks and all the weird stuff that happened the past few days.

The day I bought ingredients for the list, I had a difficult time trying to find unbleached organic bread flour and active dry yeast. Everyone here was out of both items. I asked one man who was stocking the shelves why everyone was out of these things. He shrugged his shoulders and showed me the last of the instant yeast box. I did not want to use instant yeast so I decided to use the last of the yeast I had at home. All I could figure was people were stuck at home with nothing to do so they decided to bake.~ I did not have time to search but certainly planned on looking into it.

After three really terrible days . . . I was almost ready to totally give up, when my neighbor came through for me and gifted me her beautiful cake pan! I can laugh about my trials now . . . that they are over and . . . my second batch of bread was a huge success! Yup, the first batch was a total disaster. Various issues caused me to over proof the yeast and I added Sprite to the yeast mixture to give it a boost and it did, but by the time the rolls were ready to bake, I did not get the rise I should have, the yeast ran out of its poof. It was a huge disappointment so I decided to bag the whole idea. The next day after a good nights rest, I decided to give it another try because my brother was worth the effort! The second batch ran very smoothly and the rolls cheered him up.

The verdict came in and he loved the flavor of the rolls and said they did not taste exactly the same as he remembered but they were better. I knew it would be a challenge to achieve the exact same results because I am fairly sure the school probably used bleached bread flour, and shortening, and the bread flour would have lent to a higher rise.

My brother and I are very happy the rolls turned out and we had a great visit. Oh yeah, before writing this last line, I did a google search and everyone is baking bread during the cov-19!

Cheers to all and thank you for stopping by and I wish you the best for your baking adventures~

sunshiine~