Edith Bissell’s Nut Roll

In my mother-in-law’s household in western Pennsylvania, festival food preparation always begins with the baking of the ‘nut roll’, a sweet, yeasty dough rolled around a filling of crushed walnuts and sugar, shaped into a crescent, egg-washed and baked to a shiny gold. She learned this recipe from her mother whose baking was renowned and done on a grand scale to feed a large family.