Writer: Mary Jane Miller
Photo: Duane Tinkey
Lunch ladies get a bad rap. On “Saturday Night Live,” Adam Sandler once sang about a lunch lady, played by Chris Farley, who fell in love with Sloppy Joe. In “The Simpsons,” lunch lady Doris isn’t exactly glamorous.
But I have a different memory of the lunch ladies at Indianola’s Emerson Elementary School in the 1970s. When I was in third grade, I had to take medicine on a full stomach, so mid-morning, the school nurse sent me to the cafeteria kitchen for a carton of milk. I clearly remember sitting on a chair by the milk cooler, sipping my milk while the lunch ladies in their white dresses and hairnets stood around a table topped by an enormous mound of dough. They laughed and gossiped while they shaped rolls. They seemed to be having a lot of fun. And everyone loved those rolls — golden brown, pillowy soft, baked fresh and served warm with real government butter.
Most of the food they served was plain — not bad, but not memorable — but the baked goods were legendary. They made cinnamon rolls and served them with chili, a tradition unique to the Midwest, and everyone loved their peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting.
Every morning, my mother would turn on KBAB radio while we ate breakfast. We all paid attention whenever we heard the voice of Mrs. Pauline Baxendale, who led the school lunch program for a dozen years and read the daily menu over the radio. Her words helped us decide whether or not to pack a lunch.
The recipe for those pillowy rolls was hers, but it was shared all over town, and I still make them every Thanksgiving for my family. She passed away in 1997, but I recently found a note she wrote in a local cookbook called “Favorites from Warren County Kitchens”: “This dough can also be used for cinnamon rolls, butterhorns, etc.”
Hmm … maybe I’ll make a pot of chili for dinner.
Mrs. Baxendale’s School Rolls
Note: We now have microwaves and reliable yeast, so I’ve updated her original recipe.
Makes 2 dozen
Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup cold water
2 eggs
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) dry yeast
5 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
In a microwave-safe container, combine the milk, salt, sugar and butter. Microwave until the butter is melted or about 2 1/2 minutes.
Pour the hot mixture into a large bowl. Add the cold water, and allow it to cool until it’s just warm, about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a fork to beat in the eggs.
Sprinkle the yeast over the wet mixture. Start adding in flour until it’s too stiff to stir, then use your hands to work in the rest. On a floured surface, knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Place it in a greased bowl, turning it to coat. Cover it and let it rise until it doubles in size, about an hour.
Spray a 9-by-13-inch pan with nonstick spray. Portion the dough into 24 balls, about 50 grams each. Working on a clean surface (the flour makes the balls slip), roll the dough under a cupped hand, pressing down lightly to form the dough into a perfectly smooth ball. (The lunch ladies would do two at a time, one under each hand.) Place the balls in the prepared pan, sides touching, to make six rows for four. Cover the pan and let the rolls rise until they reach the top of the pan, about 30 to 40 minutes.
Ten minutes before the rolls finish rising, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the rolls 25-30 minutes or until they’re golden brown. Remove them from the pan to a cooling rack and brush them with butter while they’re still hot.
