The recipe
A Refrigerator Roll Recipe Passed Down Through HEA
These refrigerator rolls are a true make-ahead bread, with the dough mixed, chilled for four hours, shaped, allowed to rise again, and then baked.
The source note makes this one especially meaningful: contributor Kim Gilworth Murray identifies it as her grandmother Irene Gilworth’s recipe and notes that Irene was an HEA member from the 1950s through the 1970s.
Why it matters
Why This One Is Worth Bringing Back
Refrigerator Rolls is worth bringing back because the recipe comes with a documented family handoff. Kim Gilworth Murray says it belonged to her grandmother, Irene Gilworth, who was a member of HEA from the 1950s through the 1970s.
The method itself is also wonderfully old-fashioned: mix the dough, chill it, cut off pieces as needed, roll them thin, butter and fold them, then give them a long rise before baking.
The printed recipe has an important archival quirk: the yeast, warm water, eggs, and flour appear only in the method, not in the printed ingredient list. Those ingredients are preserved where the source places them rather than silently reconstructed into the ingredient list. For another bread that leans on make-ahead timing, see Overnight Bubble Bread.
Modern kitchen notes
If You're Making It Today
These are modern editorial suggestions, not changes to the archived recipe. When a variation comes directly from the original source, we will say so.
Read the full method before starting
Several essential ingredients—yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, 2 eggs, and 7 cups flour—appear only in the printed directions, not in the source ingredient list.
Allow time for both chilling and rising
The dough is refrigerated for 4 hours, then the shaped rolls rise for another 4 hours before baking.
Do not invent a baking temperature
The source says only to bake for 15 minutes in a ‘hot oven.’ Because no temperature is given, the archive leaves that instruction unresolved rather than supplying a modern estimate.
Preserve the fold-over shape
The source calls for rolling the dough thin, cutting it with a cookie cutter, buttering it, and folding it over before the final rise.
Recipe card
The Preserved Recipe
Refrigerator Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 rounding tsp. butter
- 1½ tsp. salt
- ½ c. sugar
- 1 c. boiling water
- 1 c. cold water
Instructions
- Stir and when lukewarm, add 1 cake Fleischmann’s yeast, dissolved in ½ cup warm water.
- Beat 2 eggs and add to above.
- Stir in 7 cups of flour.
- Do not knead.
- Cover mixture with damp cloth.
- Place in refrigerator for 4 hours.
- Cut off pieces.
- Roll thin.
- Cut with cookie cutter, butter, and fold over.
- Place on ungreased tins and let rise for 4 hours.
- Bake for 15 minutes in hot oven.
Notes
Give Something Back
Help preserve the community behind the cookbook.
This recipe traces back to a Jersey County community cookbook created in the spirit of sharing, service and local connection. If you’d like to carry that spirit forward, consider supporting the Jersey County Historical Society and its work preserving local history for future generations.
Support Jersey County History →
Nostalgic Foodie is not affiliated with the Jersey County Historical Society and does not receive any portion of donations.
From the archive
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