Parker House Refrigerator Rolls Recipe

Parker House Refrigerator (almost) Rolls
This post is stolen from my sisters blog.... it made me laugh out loud so I thought I would share it with you. They actually look really good, the first picture, and it is so cold out homemade rolls sound awesome! No, my sister does not have children, just squirrels. I don't get it either. They stink worse than children.

These are similar to the rolls Jeff's mother makes.

These rolls are NOT similar to the ones Jeff's mother makes.Yeast is about as forgiving as immediate family. One wrong thing and *bam!* It's over between the both of you.I know that. I've made TONS of bread before, I know you have to be nice to yeast.But sometimes my blondeness gets a hold of me. Like when I dumped the warm yeast water instead of the regular water into the just boiled shortening and sugar. "Oh crap." I thought. "Maybe it (the yeast) won't notice I just did that if I mix them all together real quick...."But the yeast did notice. And the yeast was NOT amused.

The only ones who would eat the poor, non-rising rolls after that were the squirrels.

They'll eat most anything. Except strawberries, kiwi, peaches and cream oatmeal and celery.

Mom's Refrigerator Rolls

1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup milk
1 package active dry yeast 
3/4 cup lukewarm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 egg, beaten
4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
Butter, melted


In a large bowl, combine sugar, vegetable shortening, and salt; stir until well blended. In a small saucepan, scald milk; pour over sugar mixture. Cool to lukewarm (105 to 115 degrees F).
In a small bowl, combine yeast and water; stir until yeast is dissolved. Mix in egg until well blended; stir into milk mixture.
Add 2 cups flour. Gradually stir in as much of the remaining flour as dough will absorb, mixing well. (Add additional flour carefully. You can always add more flour, but once you've added too much, the result will be a dry product.) Place dough into a well-greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover bowl and dough with wax paper and a towel, held in place with a rubber band. Refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer than 5 days.
Grease a baking pan or muffin cups. To bake, shape into desired amount of rolls (cloverleaf rolls, Parker House rolls, or crescent-shaped rolls) and shape dough into tight balls). As you shape the rolls, you want to stretch the top of the dough ball while simultaneously sealing the bottom. The stretching helps the dough hold up to the expansion that occurs in the oven, while the sealing prevents the rolls from opening up while baking and becoming wrinkled and doughy on the bottom. As you work, keep the rest of the dough pieces covered with plastic wrap so they will n ot dry out.
Place the balls (in the desired style you want - see below) onto prepared baking pan or into prepared muffin cups. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees), free from drafts, until double in bulk, about 1 hour.
NOTE: As it isn't always easy to divide the dough by sight, I recommend that you weight the pieces. For 16 rolls, each piece should weight just a little over 2 ounces.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and remove from pans.
Yields 16 to 24 rolls (depending on size).