Mom always liked this as a special-occasion breakfast food. This recipe will make regular dinner rolls but the caramel rolls are what we remember as extra-special. The original recipe is further below.

Brevity is the soul of recipe index cards, which leave little room for in-depth explanation, and my Aunt Mary made a lot of assumptions about what knowledge I would already bring to the baking. I still haven’t quite achieved that knowledge. What’s listed first is a modified version that fleshes out some details that were missing in the original, thanks to friends on Facebook who have more experience than I with this type of bake.

THIS STILL NEEDS WORK. My attempt in 2021 used way too much brown sugar and not enough butter in the bottom of the pan. The result was that the brown sugar never caramelized and the dough was underdone (or underproved? no idea) and we had to use a blowtorch to get even just a little caramelization. Kari gamely ate them. It might need a stick of butter in the bottom and another stick in the dough itself.

Credit goes to Ananda Stevens for helping me fill in some of the gaps in Aunt Mary’s recipe with knowledge from baking similar rolls.

Dough:
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup water (warm)
3 1/2 cups flour (more or less)*
1 packet yeast

Caramel coating:
1 stick(?) butter
brown sugar
chopped nuts

Optional cinnamon roll variety:
cinnamon
sugar

Mix yeast and 1/4 cup of the warm water. Beat the stick of butter. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs one at a time, and gradually add some flour. Continue adding flour and water until water is gone, then add flour (by hand usually) until the dough pulls from the bowl. It should be sticky but firm.

Let it rise until it’s doubled or more in size. Punch it down and put it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make your rolls.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

For the caramel rolls: Melt the butter in a 9×13″ pan or 2 8×8″ or 9×9″ pans if you like crispy edges. You want enough butter to coat about 1/8″ or 1/4″ of the bottom, so use more butter if you need it. This can be done in the oven while it’s warming up, though be sure to take the pan(s) out before all the butter is melted because you don’t want it to brown. Tilt the pan around so the butter gets everywhere. Sprinkle enough brown sugar to completely coat the bottom of the pan about 1/4″ deep, then add some chopped nuts to taste. Don’t press these down into the sugar because you don’t want them to burn. 

Extra step for cinnamon roll variety (from Ananda Stevens): Once the dough is ready, pat it out flat on a Tupperware sheet. It should be about as thick as your finger. Combine your best fresh cinnamon and sugar in a shaker. Shake over the entire surface. You should be able to just barely see the dough on the top.

For all varieties (Ananda Stevens): Roll the dough up from one end to the other into a log. Stretch the end of the dough a bit and brush it with water to seal it to the roll. When you have a nice log, cut it into slices. These should be about 1/2-2/3 the height of the pan you’re using. Place slices into the pan, on top of the butter and brown sugar (and nuts).

For a square or rectangular pan, start in a corner and make rows. For a round pan, either start in the center and make a ring around that, or just make a circle of them, depending on the size of the pan. The slices should be touching, but not crammed together; they will expand a fair bit. The rolls then need to rise again until they’re about the same height as the pan.

Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes. Dump out when cool. 

If you are doing dinner rolls but not caramel rolls: Make the rolls in the usual way (blobs of dough, or whatever you prefer). Prep the pan with only a little butter. Use a basting brush and brush the tops with melted butter. They should be buttered on top before you put them in so they will brown when they are done. Bread rolls only take 15-16 minutes. 

Original recipe:
1 cube butter or oleo
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup water (warm)
3 1/2 cups flour (more or less)*
1 packet yeast or 2 1/4 granules (?) from jar
Caramel coating: butter, brown sugar, chopped nut

Mix yeast and 1/4 cup of the warm water. Beat the butter. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs one at a time, and gradually add some flour. Contiue adding flour and water until water is gone, then add flour (by hand usually) until the dough pulls from the bowl. It should be sticky but firm.

Let it rise until it’s doubled or more in size. Punch it down and put it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make your rolls.

For the caramel rolls: Melt butter in pan. Brown sugar all over and pat down in butter…nuts all over.

Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes. Dump out when cool. Bread rolls only take 15-16 minutes. They should be buttered on top before you put them in so they will brown when they are done.

*Aunt Mary used 1 cup of whole wheat flour, but she mentions in her notes that you “don’t have to.”