From The Lady's kitchen drawer
The Receipt Book
Dearest Neighbors,
Before anyone said "recipe," a proper West Virginia kitchen kept a receipt book, the old-timey word for a recipe, all flour-dusted and dog-eared, passed hand to hand like a family secret. 📖 The Lady keeps hers the same way: every measure checked twice before it's written in ink.
Granny Opal used to say a receipt worth keeping is one you'd hand to your neighbor without leavin' a thing out. So here they are, nothing left out. 🍞
Yours always, The Lady
The Receipt Book · Lunch-room classic
Putnam County School Made Pepperoni Rolls
Straight from the lunch room to your kitchen, darlin'. This is Putnam County Schools Recipe #000506 (Pepperoni Roll, 128 portions), scaled down exactly 1/16 for a family-size batch of 8. 🔔
Dough
- 1⅝ cups warm water (110°F)
- 2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
- 1 packet (¼ oz) instant yeast
- 13 oz (369 g, about 3 cups) white bread flour
- 7 oz (198 g, about 1¾ cups) whole wheat flour
- 2 Tbsp oil
- 1½ tsp salt
Filling
- 4 oz sliced pepperoni (½ oz, about 8 slices, per roll)
- 1 lb low-moisture part-skim mozzarella (2 oz per roll)
Steps
- Mix warm water, brown sugar and yeast for 2 minutes.
- Add both flours, salt and oil. Mix/knead 10 minutes.
- Let rise until doubled.
- Divide into 8 equal pieces.
- Flatten each, add 8 pepperoni slices and 2 oz cheese, seal dough around them.
- Place in a greased 9×13 pan, let rise until doubled.
- Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.
- Warm the water to about 110°F, checked with a thermometer.
- Pat the pepperoni dry.
- Pinch the seams tight and set each roll seam-side down.
- Brush with melted butter or egg wash for a pretty shine.
- Start checking at about 13 minutes, and pull them when deep golden.
How the school batch was scaled (128 → 8)
| Ingredient | School batch | Home batch (÷16) |
|---|---|---|
| Warm water | 1⅝ gal | 1⅝ cups |
| Brown sugar, packed | 2 cups | 2 Tbsp |
| Instant yeast | 4 oz | ¼ oz (1 packet) |
| White bread flour | 13 lb | 13 oz |
| Whole wheat flour | 7 lb | 7 oz |
| Oil | 2 cups | 2 Tbsp |
| Salt | ½ cup | 1½ tsp |
| Sliced pepperoni | 4 lb | 4 oz |
| Part-skim mozzarella | 16 lb | 1 lb |
Source: Putnam County Schools Recipe #000506, Pepperoni Roll (128 portions). Putnam school menus list the "School Made Pepperoni Roll," for example Buffalo Elementary's dining page.
The Receipt Book · Home batch
Classic West Virginia–Style Pepperoni Rolls
The miner's way: soft, slightly sweet bread with pepperoni tucked inside and cheese strictly optional. Purists skip it. 😉 The proportions follow Simply Recipes' tested home ratio, with the bake checked against roll size.
Dough
- ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water, 105–110°F
- 2¼ tsp (one ¼-oz packet) instant yeast (active dry works too; see step 1)
- ¾ cup (180 ml) whole milk, warmed to about 100–110°F
- 4 Tbsp (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 3½ cups (about 450 g) all-purpose flour, plus up to ¼ cup more as needed
- 1 tsp table salt
Filling & finish
- 8 oz pepperoni: a stick cut into 36 sticks about 3 in × ¼ in (3 per roll), or about 144 thin slices (12 per roll)
- Optional: 4–6 oz mozzarella or provolone, in sticks or shredded
- 2 Tbsp melted butter, for brushing after baking
Method
- Wake the yeast. Stir the yeast into the warm water. Instant yeast can go straight on; active dry should stand 5–10 min until creamy and foamy.
- Mix. Whisk the warm milk, melted butter, sugar and egg. In a large bowl combine 3½ cups flour and the salt, add the yeast water and milk mixture, and stir to a shaggy dough.
- Knead 6–8 min by hand (5–6 min with a dough hook on medium-low) until smooth, soft and slightly tacky. Add extra flour 1 Tbsp at a time only if it sticks badly.
- First rise. Cover in a greased bowl somewhere warm until doubled, 1 to 1½ hours.
- Prep. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment; set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
- Divide into 12 equal pieces (about 2½ oz each). Cover and rest 10 min.
- Fill and roll. Pat each piece to about 4 × 5 in. Lay 3 pepperoni sticks (or about 12 slices) along a short edge with a ¼-in border, add cheese if using, roll snugly and pinch the seam. Set seam-side down, 6 per sheet, about 2 in apart.
- Second rise 30–45 min until puffy. Heat the oven to 350°F.
- Bake at 350°F for 25–30 min, swapping the sheets halfway, until evenly golden and hollow-sounding. The bread (not the pepperoni) should read about 190°F.
- Butter the hot rolls and cool at least 10–15 min. The filling is very hot.
Sources: Simply Recipes (base ratio and storage), America's Test Kitchen (freezing), e-WV (tradition).
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More From the Receipt Book
[Coming soon: more verified recipes. The Lady only files a recipe once every measure is checked twice.]