Crescent Rolls

These flaky, buttery, crescent rolls are melt in your mouth delicious and easier to make than you might think. These rolls can be made in an hour if you’re crunched for time. These are perfect to pair with any dinner, or for any holiday get together.

Growing up crescent rolls were a staple on our kitchen table. Not the homemade kind, though. My mom always bought the pillsbury crescent rolls, and man, they were good! Sometimes, store bought things can be hard to beat, and the pillsbury crescent rolls are one of them.

I decided to try recreating these at home. While I personally don’t mind using store bought things, because honestly some store bought things can’t be beat, I do like the convenience of homemade. It’s tough traveling to the store with three little boys some days.

These homemade crescent rolls are just as good if not better than the store bought version. They’re soft, delicious warm straight out of the oven, buttery flaky, you name it. Brush them with a little bit more butter right before serving and these are REALLY good.

The details

when do you add butter when kneading dough

There is a thought that butter should be added after dough is mixed. This is because butter can interfere with the structure of the gluten in the dough and cause the dough to not be able to rise as much. However, after experimentation, mixing the butter straight into the dough versus mixing the butter after the dough has been mixed resulted in no difference. Plus it was a bit harder to incorporate the butter after the dough was already mixed.

mixing the dough

To mix the dough, you can use your hands, or a stand mixer to do the work for you. Add the yeast, warm milk and sugar to the bowl. Since this recipe uses instant yeast, there is no need to activate the yeast. It can simply be mixed right away with all the ingredients. Add the butter, egg, flour and salt. Do not put the salt directly on top of the yeast. It can deactivate the yeast. Mix on low speed just until the ingredients are formed, then mix on medium speed for 5 minutes. If mixing by hand, knead the dough for 10 minutes. Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl and cover

rising

If you are in a time crunch, you can preheat your oven to 150F. Turn oven off, then place covered dough in warm oven. The warm oven helps the dough rise faster. If you prefer, or are using the oven for something else, you can just let the dough rise for 60 minutes at room temperature.

Shaping

Divide the dough ball into 2 pieces. Roll each piece on a floured surface into a 10-inch circle. Cut the dough like a pizza with a pizza cutter into 10 pieces. Starting at the wide edge, roll up into a crescent roll shape. Place the shaped rolls on a parchment paper lined sheet, then cover.

second rise

For the second rise, you can again preheat the oven to 150F, then turn oven off. Place covered rolls in warm oven and allow to rise for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven. If you prefer, allow to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

baking

Bake in preheated 350F oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

serve and enjoy

Serve the rolls warm. If you’d like, you can try brushing melted butter over the rolls just before serving.

If you make these crescent rolls, let me know what you think in the ratings and comments below. Find me on instagram and youtube for the full baking video and more fun behind the scenes.

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