Ella Beesley’s Refrigerator Rolls Recipe

Excerpted from 'Baking in the American South' by Anne Byrn

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Published November 13, 2024

If the rest of your menu fails, at least you'll have Ella Beesley's Refrigerator Rolls, writes Anne Byrn.

Rinne Allen

For many years, I didn’t bake yeast rolls, nor did my mother. We didn’t need to, because Ella Beesley, my mother’s dear friend in Nashville, baked better “pocket-book rolls” than anyone. The Southern version of Parker House rolls, they were folded in the middle and light as a feather and yet wickedly rich, “flip-flopped” through melted butter, as Beesley used to say, before being placed side by side in the pan. Every holiday, in the last-minute countdown to dinner, my mother or I would point out to each other that if the rest of the menu failed, it would be OK, because Beesley’s rolls would be a hit.

Beesley had quite a brisk roll business going. She baked and wrapped them in foil, first placing a sheet of waxed paper on top of them because she didn’t like them to touch the foil, then sealed and stashed them in her basement freezer. The recipe had been handed down from her mother, Mary Priestly Cox of Huntington, in West Tennessee, and she guesses it was her mother’s recipe before that. “There’s nothing better than a hot roll,” she says. For my family, there’s nothing better than Beesley’s rolls. Note: For these, you'll want to plan ahead. The soft dough must be refrigerated overnight so it is easier to work with. —Anne Byrn

Ella Beesley’s Refrigerator Rolls

Makes 6 to 7 dozen rolls

Prep: 25 to 30 minutes

Rise: 2 to 2½ hours for 2 rises, plus overnight in fridge

Bake: 18 to 22 minutes

Ingredients

4 cups whole milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable shortening
3⅜ teaspoons (1½ packages) dry yeast
7¼ cups all-purpose flour, divided, plus ½ cup for pressing
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons salted butter, for brushing (or add ¼ teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter)
Parchment paper for lining the pan

Directions

Pour the milk into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Heat it just until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Place the sugar in a large bowl and cut the shortening into it with two knives, so the pieces of shortening are smaller and it’s easier for the milk to melt them. Pour the hot milk over the sugar and shortening and stir to melt. Check the temperature of the mixture with an instant-read thermometer and let it cool to 125°Fahrenheit or lower. Stir in the yeast to dissolve.

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Place 6½ cups of the flour and the salt in another large bowl and whisk until combined. With a wooden spoon or whisk, fold the flour into the milk and yeast mixture until smooth and free of lumps and the dough is a thick batter.

Cover the bowl with a light kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Stir the baking powder and baking soda into the remaining ¾ cup flour in a small bowl. Turn the dough and this flour mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and beat with a paddle or dough hook on medium speed until the dough is webby and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 4 to 5 minutes. You want it to be thick but sticky. Return the dough to a large clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

"Baking in the American South" by Anne Byrn includes 200 recipes and more than 150 photos from 14 states.

Rinne Allen/Harper Celebrate

Bake With Anne

Byrn shared three recipes from 'Baking in the American South' with AARP members:

Nashville Chess Tartlets

This smaller version is great for summer barbecues, packed in box lunches, and on the table at holiday parties.

My Grandmother’s Virginia Spoonbread

One bite, and you will see why cooks have revered it and why historians have waxed poetic about it.

Ella Beesley’s Refrigerator Rolls

These are the Southern version of Parker House rolls — light as a feather and yet wickedly rich.

The next day, remove the dough from the fridge and uncover. The dough will still be sticky. Push it down in the bowl with a rubber spatula. Scatter half of the 1/2 cup flour on a surface, turning the dough out and sprinkling with a little more flour as needed. Cut the dough in half with a bench scraper or knife. Working with half the dough at a time, press out to a 16-inch round, about ⅓ inch thick.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Line a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or brush four 9-inch round cake pans with butter. With a 1½ to 2-inch floured biscuit cutter, cut into rounds and flip-flop them in the melted butter and fold in half like a pocketbook.

Place them tightly side by side on the prepared pan in rows, placing them 8 across and 10 down if using the baking sheet or about 18 to a pan if using the cake pans. If you can’t fit them all on the baking sheet, put any leftovers in a cake pan. You will get 6 to 7 dozen, depending on the size of the cutter. After cutting the rounds, pick up the scraps and shape them into rounds, dip in butter, and continue (there is no need to reroll).

Drape the pan or pans with a kitchen towel and let the rolls rise again in a warm spot until nearly doubled, 1 to 1.5 hours.

Heat the oven to 350°F, with a rack in the middle.

Bake the rolls until lightly golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes. (They brown more in a more shallow pan.) Serve warm or let cool, then wrap in foil and freeze for up 3 months. To reheat, open the foil slightly to vent the package and place in a 325°F oven for 20 minutes, or until warmed through. Serve.

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