The Park Cities boasts a cornucopia of high-quality baked goods. But one yeasted product rises above all others: the rolls at Highland Park ISD’s middle and high schools.
I first encountered the rolls while serving chicken tenders at McCulloch Intermediate School/Highland Park Middle School. Because I love all baked goods, I took a roll home with me at the end of my volunteer shift.
I quickly discovered that these are no ordinary dinner rolls. They are sweet, but not too sweet, soft while still being a little chewy, and perfectly round and risen. They may be the best rolls I have ever eaten, and I have eaten a lot of rolls.
I almost struck the baked goods jackpot a few weeks later when a Spanish-speaking staff member informed me that she wouldn’t be serving a tray of rolls because it was overbaked.
The rolls looked a little dark, but I could live with that.
During a break in serving tenders, I used Google Translate to ask whether I could take the rolls home and put them in the deep freeze I had purchased during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The staff member looked at me oddly. Then, she must have decided the rolls were edible after all, because she served them. The rolls — along with my visions of weeks spent dipping them in soup — quickly disappeared.
I was thrilled when I learned that I wasn’t limited to picking up one or two rolls while volunteering. They’re available to purchase by the baker’s dozen at the middle school cafeteria every November. I’ve increased my order over the years to 10 dozen, which I share with my in-laws. We all agree that the rolls are delicious.
Disaster almost struck last year when I forgot to pick up my rolls the week before Thanksgiving, and we had to serve inferior baked goods with our turkey. But the middle school cafeteria staff kindly allowed me to retrieve my order the week after the holiday, and I served the rolls at Christmas.
When I interviewed high school food service manager Brenda Vardell for an article in this month’s issue, I had to ask about her rolls. I’ve tried baking several versions of my own rolls, but they’re never as good as Vardell’s.
“It’s so funny that they say that they’re my rolls,” she remarked. “So many people think we make them by hand. They’re a product that we get in.”
Vardell even showed me the purchased case of sweet yeast roll dough in the high school’s walk-in freezer.
Vardell told me that I’m not the only one with a hankering for her baked goods, homemade or not. She began selling Thanksgiving rolls about 15 years ago as a little fundraiser for the middle school cafeteria. Now, the school receives more than 300 roll orders each November. Vardell isn’t sure how many rolls the cafeteria sells but said it’s a lot.
So how much longer do we need to wait for roll season?
Vardell said that the baked treats will go on sale in early November at McCulloch Intermediate School/Highland Park Middle School.
And roll aficionados who either eat all their baked goods or forget to place an order have another chance to obtain the tasty treats in February. Volunteers in the high school and middle school cafeterias all that month will receive a baker’s dozen of the buns with homemade honey butter.