Cheese Rolls!

We went to the circus last night.  WOW!  I can’t believe what people do for entertainment’s sake.  It was insanely fun and crazy! 

I tried ‘real’ kettle corn at the circus, too.  Again… WOW!  I’m pretty sure I ate half the bag myself.  The other half was split amongst the other eight people.  I can’t be sure that I ate half all on my own.  I was too engrossed in the show to realize that I was actually eating it at all.  The only thing I’m sure of is that the bag (they are giant bags by the way) was on my lap the majority of the time and that there was a distinctly happy sweet yet salty flavor in my mouth for the duration of the first half of the show. 

Before I knew it, the bag was empty.  Whoops!

And then my sister bought cotton candy.  I can’t resist cotton candy.  Straight shot of sugar… I’m addicted!  Darn her! 

Then after the show, my bio dad (he actually bought all our tickets and the kettle corn) decided that each kid needed a ‘souvenir’.  They all chose snow cones in large tiger cups.  As if they needed any more sugar.  Ah well, what can I say?

The whole experience and atmosphere of the circus really put me in the mood for carnival/fair food.  Is that weird? 

But that’s not what this post is about.  We’re talking about cheese rolls! 

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My high school cafeteria had the best cheese rolls in the entire world.  They were like gigantic cinnamon rolls (except take out the cinnamon roll filling because I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t go well with cheese… gross!) but with CHEESE!  My friend and I would run to the cafeteria between classes to buy them just about every day.  We would also grab a condiment cup full of ranch dressing to dip them in.  They were divine! 

My mouth is watering just thinking of those days.  Mmmmm! 

So a while back, as I was watching a daytime show here in Utah called Good Things Utah, they had someone on from a certain school district in our area to demonstrate the making of CHEESE ROLLS!  She said they made them for every school in that district and it just so happened to be the district I was in. 

You can’t even begin to imagine my joy and excitement!  This was it… I could enjoy my high school love all over again.  I printed the recipe and it sat…

But just the other day, I decided to give it a go. 

I looked at the recipe and I was sure that I was smarter than the recipe.  It didn’t call for any rising of the dough. It’s a yeast bread, it has to rise.

Uh, yeah, so apparently I’m not a rocket scientist.  Don’t let it rise.  It does it’s own rising in the oven. 

They were just as delicious as I remember but I made them about half the size.  Seriously, the ones at the school were gigantic! 

Hope you’ve got a lot of cheese on hand… here we go!

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**Preheat your oven to 350*

First you’ll need 1/4 c. warm water (baby bath warm), some yeast and some sugar.  Stir together. 

 

See that?  THAT is some happy yeast!



Combine the rest of the warm water, sugar and shortening in a large bowl.



Add yeast mixture and stir. 

Add flour one cup at a time until dough is soft but not sticky.  It should pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Roll it out like cinnamon rolls on floured surface (I used half the dough). 

Sprinkle cheese.

 

Roll it up like a cinnamon roll.

 

Cut into pieces about 1 – 1 1/2 inches thick.  (I use the dental floss method to cut it.  Just grab a piece of dental floss a bit longer than you might use for your teeth, slide the dental floss underneath, cross your floss {switch hands} so it’s an X shape.  Pull… you should have a perfect slice without smooshing your rolls.)



Place in greased pan and do not let rise!  I made that mistake with the first batch

Put in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. 

I ended up having to reroll the second pan because I had let it rise also.  I gathered up all the rolls and rolled it out again with my rolling pin… cheese and all. 



So, maybe the cheese was a little displaced but look how yummy they look! 





 

Cheese Rolls

1/2 c. sugar

2 T yeast

4 c. warm water

1/3 c. shortening

1 T. salt

9 c. flour

4 c. cheddar cheese

 

Preheat oven to 350*

Mix 1 T. of the sugar with 1/4 c. of the warm water and the yeast.  Let it get bubbly for a few minutes. 

In a large bowl, combine the remainder of the warm water, sugar, shortening and salt.  Add yeast mixture and stir. 

Add flour one cup at a time until it is soft but not sticky and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  You may have to use your hands. 

Roll out into a long rectangle like you would for cinnamon rolls.  Sprinkle cheese on top, roll it up (long sides), cut into pieces and place on baking sheet or in baking pan. 

**optional – you can brush the tops with an egg wash if you’d like

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. 

 

Hope you enjoy them!  We sure did!