Hand-me-down-recipe: Gladys’ Roly-Polies

A picture of Great-Aunt Gladys, my sister and me from way-back-when.

While I was standing at my Aunt Linda’s gas stove stirring brown sugar into butterscotch pie, my Great-Aunt Gladys said, “Oh wouldn’t it be nice to have some roly polies.”

“I love roly-polies,” my Aunt Linda said as she moved chairs around the kitchen. My Aunt Trish from Florida was here for our family reunion and my aunts, great-aunt, little sister, and grandma had just finished lunch in Linda’s small bungalow kitchen. The men had been kicked out of the house to eat at A&W down the street.

“What are roly polies?” I asked whisking the stick of butter and dark vanilla into the thick sugary goodness on the stove.

“It’s what you do with the leftover dough.” Gladys said. “We always use to make them. All you do is just bunch the scraps together, and then roll them out, not too thick and sprinkle it with…”

“Cinnamon and sugar,” Grandma chimed in (Gladys is her older sister), “then you roll it up and slice ‘em.”

“Yes,” Gladys said, “and bake them on a sheet. It doesn’t take long.”

As I poured the tan pudding into the pre-baked pie crust, the heart in the middle of my pie disappeared. This pie was for my Aunt Trish and my sister Lynley. They look just a like and have championed the butterscotch side of the Great Farris Family Pie Debate for years. I am on the chocolate side, but I have recently discovered the joy of hot butterscotch, so I’m relenting a little.

“Well, let’s make some. I’ve got extra crust in the fridge,” I said setting the pie aside to cool and re-flouring the grandma’s wooden dough board.

“Good,” my Aunt Linda said plopping down in-between my Grandma and Great-Aunt Gladys.

“As long as it doesn’t interfere with the butterscotch,” my Aunt Trish smiled and laughed from her corner of the kitchen.

Wiping my floury hands on my apron, I reached into the fridge and pulled out the dough.

Farris Family Roly-Poly Recipe:

Any amount of pie crust (leftover or fresh or frozen- if it’s cold, even better for rolling)

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 cup of flour

How –to:

Pre-heat your oven to 375.

Spray a cookie sheet with a Pam-like-non-stick-product or get fancy and cover the cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl mix the cinnamon and sugar together.

You can add more or less depending on how much dough you have or sugar you like.

Dust flour onto a clean flat surface.

With floured hands, gather the dough together into a ball and then flatten it into a disk by pressing it with your hands or against the clean floured surface.

Grab your rolling pin, sprinkle flour on it and roll the dough out into a circle until it is at most a ½ inch thick (it can be a little thinner if you like).

Sprinkle the dough with your cinnamon and sugar mixture, covering the dough surface with a healthy dusting.

Now, this is where it might get tricky, take the edge of the dough and start to roll it up so the cinnamon sugar side is on the inside and the dough forms a roll, like slice and bake cookies. My dough was too warm when I tried this the first time, so I had to mold it into a log (Gladys kept saying, “It’s alright honey, it’ll still taste good.”)

Once the dough is rolled, use a sharp knife to slice it into ½ inch to an inch thick disks (there was much debate about this, but I always like my crust thick, Gladys leaned toward the thinner side).

Lay each disk on the cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes or until they are flaky and crisp like crust and slightly golden brown.

If you can, let the roly polies cool for a few minutes, but make sure to eat a few while they’re still warm, my grandpa and I like them that way.

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