Presented by: Mary Bell, Bainbridge Island

Cook's Note: Light, golden and warm, these rolls are a culinary metaphor for the holiday season! I am a busy mother of seven, but I have always found the time to make these rolls for my husband and children...and now, it seems, many others. I have accepted requests to prepare these rolls for cooking classes and for events for friends.

You will love them because they are so soft, and so very different from what you can buy in a store or most bakeries. They are not hard to make, you just need to be in the house for a few hours. But then, "there's no place like home for the holidays."

makes 3 dozen rolls

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2/3 cup nonfat dry milk
• 1 egg
• 5-6 cups all-purpose flour

Preparation

In a large bowl, mix yeast and water and let stand 5 minutes. Add sugar, shortening, salt, dry milk, egg, and 2 cups of the flour. Beat together until smooth. Gradually add remaining flour until a soft dough is formed.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl; cover and let rise until doubles in bulk. Punch down; divide into thirds.

Roll out one-third of dough into a circle; cut into 12 pie-shaped pieces. Starting at the wide end, roll up each piece into a crescent. Place on greased baking sheet with point on bottom. Repeat with remainder of dough.

Brush tops with melted butter. Let rise until double in size. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Serve warm with honey butter or cran-raspberry butter.