Today's Case:
Radio Rolls Revisited
Re: Radio Rolls
From: Jim
To: Phaedrus
Date: 2/5/2025, 6:55 PM
On 2/5/2025 5:00 PM, Jim wrote:
Hello,
I found this story on your site interesting. A place called "Slim's Pastry Shop"
in Redfield, SD also made a "Radio Roll" and I ate quite a few when I was
growing up in the 60s and 70s. Just like Karin, no one else from my hometown
even remembers them. They were a spiral roll, like a cinnamon roll, but they
had a tan or brown frosting. The frosting might have been maple-flavored.
It's a happy memory, maybe it's best unsolved. I do remember they had
cinnamon in them and I'm not sure if the nuts were crushed almonds or
crushed pecans. I'm not sure if this is more helpful or more confusing for you.
Thanks,
Jim
Original Post: Radio Rolls
----- Original Message -----
> From: Karin
> To:phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
> Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 8:57 PM
> Subject: Radio Rolls Recipe Request
>
> Hello,
>
> I am looking for a recipe for "Radio Rolls." They were made at the Royal Bake Shoppe
> in Centerville, SD (I understand it is a somewhat well-known German pastry). They are
> relatively flat, less than 1/2" tall, about 5" across, and a continuous coil of pastry with
> chopped walnut in the coils. They have a light golden color, and may have some sugar
> sprinkled on top (but> not much) as they had a bit of a gloss. They were topped with a
> drizzle of an almond glaze, and sprinkled with more chopped almonds. Dale Merritt
> was the original baker of them at Royal, but he sold the business to Keith Ellis, who
> didn't devote much time to it, and the business slowly dried up and he moved what was
> left to Tea, SD. He may still live in Centerville though. I haven't been back there in years,
> since my grandparents passed away. They were great with butter on top, or with a little
> peanut butter mixed into the butter. You had to reserve them if you weren't there when
> they opened. I would love to try making them for my dad for his next birthday (75!)
> since he loved them so much.
>
> Any help will be greatly appreciated!
>
> Karin
Hello Jim,
Thanks for writing. I cannot find any mention at all of a "Slim's Pastry Shop" in Redfield, SD or anywhere else in SD. Redfield and Centerville are close enough to each other that there could be a connection, but I can't find any evidence of one.
What I am finding is that "Radio Rolls" were popular in the Mid-West in the 1930s and they were very popular in South Dakota in particular. However, no two recipes for them that I have seen are quite the same. "The Exponent," the student newspaper at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota, described them like this in 1933: "radio rolls, a type of roll abundant in nuts and icing."
An old cookbook from Trinity Lutheran Church in Estelline, SD had this recipe:
RADIO ROLLS - Janet Brandsrud
1/2 c. shortening
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. hot water
1 egg (beaten)
1 pkg. yeast
1/2 c. lukewarm water
2 1/2 c. flour
2 c. wheat flake cereal
Mix shortening, sugar, salt, water and egg. Cool and add yeast dissolved in the
lukewarm water. Add flour and cereal. Mix well and put in well greased bowl.
Cover and refrigerate.
Next day-Roll out in thin sheet, 1/4 in. thick. Butter and sprinkle generously
with brown sugar and pecans. Roll up and cut into 1/2 in. slices.
Place 1·in. apart and press down flat. Let rise until puffy. Bake 375° F.
Frost while hot with butterscotch icing: Melt butter and brown sugar and add
powdered sugar. If necessary add a little hot water. While warm, glaze with
melted butter, brown sugar, powdered sugar and bit of hot water to form
spreading consistency.
I did not find a "radio rolls" recipe that called for maple, but this recipe seems similar to what you describe: Maple Cinnamon Rolls
Going out on a limb, I'm going to speculate that they were called "radio rolls" because perhaps people enjoyed them while listening to their favorite radio programs, since radio was a favorite form of entertainment in the 1930s. The popularity of "radio rolls" seems to have faded as WWII came along and then moreso as radio's popularity faltered after the war. It's very difficult to find recipes for them now.
I no longer have Karin's email address from 2009, so I cannot contact her, but I will post this. Maybe she still checks the site from time to time.
Thanks again for writing,
Phaed
Sir,
Thank you, very much. You've given me more information than I ever hoped to find.
You have an amazing website with incredibly historical information. I'm sending a
picture recently posted by the Redfield Historical Society. This picture got the
complete conversation rolling with some of my old friends. One friend worked at
Slim's part-time when he was in High School. He didn't remember Radio Rolls, either.
You can tell by cars, the photo was probably taken in the late 60s.
Yes, my hometown has much German heritage. From the 1880s until WWI, the
biggest bank in the county was the German American Bank. Then it changed its
name during the war and went out of business in the Depression. I'm 3/4 German
and 1/4 Dutch. My grandfather always said grace in German and he'd call me a
"Dumel Youngin'" when I didn't do something exactly the way he wanted it done.
On another note that probably only impresses me, my aunt worked at a clothing
store directly across the street from Slim's. The grandson of the owner of the
clothing store played football for the Washington Redskins in the 70s.
Thanks again for all the historic recipes. Have a great week and enjoy the game
on Sunday.
Jim
PS I'm now in Texas with lots of good German food and Mexican food, too.
