Last Christmas, my mom gave me a copy of Lauren Graham’s memoir Talking As Fast As I Can with a copy of Eat Like a Gilmore: The Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of Gilmore Girls by Kristi Carlson. Needless to say, I was in heaven (aka Stars Hollow).

Eat Like a Gilmore is a complete guide to, well, eating like the Gilmore Girls. The book includes a huge range of recipes relating to foods eaten throughout the course of the television show. Kristi Carlson enlisted the help of chef and baker friends to put together a delicious and cohesive array of recipes.

Since Lorelai’s recipes have been featured on here accompanying a review of Lauren Graham’s memoir Talking As Fast As I Can, I’ve included Rory-inspired recipes that are so good, you’ll wonder if you, too, “are dying” (and have gone to Stars Hollow heaven). Below is a passage and recipe from Kristi Carlson’s fabulous cookbook:

Parker House Rolls

This is one of Rory’s favorite foods – Parker House Rolls.

Part of the fun of making these is watching these cute, perfectly uniform balls of dough as they bake, shoulder to shoulder, in the middle of the pan like Revolutionary War re-enactors. These rolls have a light, crusty top with a soft middle that’s just asking to be pulled apart. Smoosh some Irish butter between two warm halves, take a bite, and you’ll forget all about having to move out of the pool house.

 

Ingredients

Butter and flour, for preparing pan

1 ½ c Milk

1 Egg

2 ¼ t Active dry yeast

5 T Unsalted butter, cubed

3 T Granulated sugar

4 c Flour, plus extra for kneading and rolling dough

Additional butter, for greasing bowl

4 T Butter, melted, for brushing

2 t Kosher salt, for sprinkling

 

Directions

Prep oven and pan: Make sure the oven rack is in the center position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat a 9×13-inch baking pan with butter and then flour. Set aside.

Heat milk and egg: In a medium saucepan, combine milk and the egg, lightly whisking together until blended. Insert a candy thermometer into pan. Warm the mixture to 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit (no hotter) over medium heat. Remove from heat. Immediately while the mixture is still in the pot, stir in the yeast. Then transfer the whole thing to a large mixing bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes. The yeast will likely begin to get frothy. (If it doesn’t – don’t panic. Simply move on to the next step.)

Form dough: Add the cubed butter, sugar, and 4 cups of flour to bowl. Combine the ingredients using a hand mixer on low to medium speed until a scraggly dough forms. Cover a flat work surface with a layer of flour. Turn out the dough onto the work surface and knead dough with your hands for 3-4 minutes.

Let dough rise: Grease a large mixing bowl with butter. Place dough in bowl and cover it with a clean dish towel. Allow dough to sit like this for 90 minutes. In this time, it should rise to double its size, or more. The rising may not occur until closer to the end of the 90 minutes, so keep the faith!

Roll the rolls: One more time, turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle shape that’s about 13-inches long by 9-inches wide. Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut the dough, lengthwise, into 4 long, equal rows. Then cut each row into 6 pieces. The will give you 24 pieces – each piece roughly the same size. Roll each piece into a ball between your palms. You can take any edges and tuck them into the bottom of the ball. Place the balls into the 9×13-inch pan, spacing the rolls ½-inch apart (You will wind up with 4 rolls across by 6 rolls length-wise). Allow rolls to rise 20-30 minutes, until they puff up enough to touch each other.

Bake the rolls: Brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter then place the tray in the oven for 30 minutes. I like to brush the rolls with butter every 10 minutes. The final time, I also sprinkle salt on each roll. The rolls will turn a nice golden brown on the top when they’re done. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Remove rolls from pan, separate, and serve.

Makes 24 rolls.