In today’s post: the best rolls you’ve ever tasted! Learn how to make amazing homemade crescent rolls for Thanksgiving or any other time you’d like to impress everyone at the table.
Baking bread is one of those things that people think is really hard. I understand why it’s a bit intimidating, but honestly, it’s not that hard. Certainly not rocket science. I learned how to make bread in home ec in eighth grade, and if a bunch of eighth graders can do it, you can too. Plus once you show up at Thanksgiving with a tray full of these unbelievably delicious crescent rolls you’ll be famous. Seriously.
I took my favorite dinner roll recipe and made it a little bigger for times when you need more rolls (24 big rolls instead of 16) and added an extra layer of butter to make these over-the-top amazing.
I promise you that store bought rolls just cannot compare with these. I make them for Thanksgiving and anytime I want dinner to be extra special, or anytime I feel like raking in the compliments.
I’m going to walk you step-by-step through how to make these homemade crescent rolls so you can start raking in the compliments too!
How to make homemade crescent rolls
Buttery Crescent Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/4 cup Warm Water
- 4 tsp Active Dry Yeast or 3 tsp Instant Yeast
- 3 tbsp Butter softened
- 2 Eggs
- 1/3 cup Sugar
- 4 and 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Salt
For Topping Dough
- 6 tbsp Butter softened
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Instructions
- Combine water, yeast, 3 tbsp butter, eggs, sugar, salt, and 3 cups of flour in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix using dough hook on low until combined.
- Continue mixing and gradually add last cup and a half of flour. Dough should pull away from sides of bowl (but not the bottom of the bowl if you are using a KitchenAid). Knead on medium for 5 more minutes.
- Turn out dough onto floured surface and knead 2 or 3 times, pulling into a tight ball. Cover with kitchen towel and allow to rise until doubled, 60-90 minutes. (You can also place the dough in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap to rise.)
- Turn dough onto floured surface and divide into 2 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 12 inch circle. Spread 3 tbsp softened butter on each circle, then use a pizza cutter to slice each circle into 12 triangles.
- Roll each triangle up from the wide side, creating a crescent shape. Place on greased 12x17 cookie sheet (jelly roll pan). Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise again about 45 minutes until noticeably puffed.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Bake at 350 15-20 minutes, until tops are golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with additional melted butter, if desired. Serve warm.
Tips
Next, watch this video to learn everything you need to know about making rolls. I explain about yeast and what kind of flour I use and how to know if you’ve kneaded the dough long enough and when it’s done rising, etc. The video is about eleven minutes long and it really does cover everything you need to know to make homemade dinner rolls.
Please note that I made this video for my original dinner roll recipe, so the amounts mentioned in the video are slightly different from the ones on the recipe card above, since today’s batch of cresent rolls is larger (24 large rolls).
The video above shows you how to shape standard round dinner rolls. The quick 1 minute video below shows the process for making crescents instead (written instructions follow):
How to shape crescent rolls:
At the end of the first rise, punch dough down and divide into 2 equal pieces. On a floured surface, roll each piece out into a 12 inch circle. Soften 6 tablespoons of butter and spread half on each circle. Use a pizza cutter to slice the circles into 12 equal slices (just like pizza). Roll up each triangle from the outside edge to form a crescent roll shape. Place all 24 rolls on a greased 11×17 inch cookie sheet with high sides (aka jelly roll pan). Allow to rise again for about 45 minutes, then bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until middle sections of each roll are quite golden brown and edges are light golden brown. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and brush over baked rolls.
A couple extra notes:
- I mentioned in the video that you can mix your bread by hand if you don’t have a mixer, and I even promised to give you some tips for that. And then I didn’t (sorry!). Click here for a really good overview of how to knead bread by hand.
- You should start making rolls just over 3 hours before you want to serve them. Here’s the general time table: 15 minutes to mix and knead | 60-90 minutes first rise | 10 minutes shape | 45 minutes second rise | 15-20 minutes bake time (and those times are absolutely not set in stone – if you let it rise a little too long or not quite long enough the rolls will still turn out fine!)
- You can make the rolls ahead, up through the shaping step, and then freeze them to bake later to save time. Click here to learn how.
- This recipe is for white rolls. You can substitute up to half the flour with whole wheat flour if you’d like, but they will not be as pillowy soft. If you want to make 100% whole wheat rolls, you’ll need to find a different recipe.
- This recipe calls for 6 tablespoons of softened butter to be spread over the dough before rolling up – I actually usually use 8 tablespoons, or a full half cup. Either will work, but I’m of the “more butter is better” school of thought.
Want more bread recipes? Visit these posts:
How to make perfect dinner rolls
Easy 4 ingredient no-knead artisan bread
Beautiful braided bread recipe
How to make french bread at home
Better than Olive Garden garlic breadsticks
Stephanie says
I teach in Africa and for Christmas wanted to make our traditional crescent rolls! These were Amazing! So easy to make! Thank you for the video!
Dustin says
I love love love this recipe! I have made crescent rolls for years but this recipe is the easiest I have tried. It is well worth the try. The texture of the dough is where you could use for pizza crusts or dough to stuff with goodies and bake. I may try adding a touch more butter next time to get a better buttery flavor but it is a 5 star recipe!
Tom Bachey says
The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of butter, but I counted 11 tablespoons in the recipe card – 3 T for the dough, 3 T for each circle, then 2 T for finished rolls. 3+3+3+2 – 11 What am I missing?
Thanks!
Tom Bachey
Autumn says
The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of butter in the dough, and 6 tablespoons of butter for filling the rolls (3T for each circle). Any additional butter you’d like to brush on top is optional!
Emily says
The crescent video shows you adding one egg but the recipe says two? My dough came out too sticky even with an extra 1/2 cup and I’m wondering if it’s because I only needed one egg?
autumn says
Hi Emily! I actually do use 2 eggs when I make the crescents – the recipe is a little larger than my standard roll recipe which is why I use two (but the footage used in the video is from the standard roll recipe which is why you only see 1 there). You can always add extra flour if your dough is too sticky. There is lots of variation in how much flour is actually needed depending on how the flour is measured and how humid it is when you are mixing it up, etc. So it’s totally ok to go by “feel” when adding flour. Good luck!
Emily says
Thank you for the reply! And even though it was stickier than I thought it should be, it ended up working up really easily and they were delicious (I love how many it makes!) I’ve always been a fearful dough maker but your recipes have never failed me! Thanks again!
PDill says
Autumn, thanks for sharing this recipe! I’ve loved crescent rolls (Pillsbury) since I was little. Someone made homemade crescent rolls at a dinner I attended years ago…she shared her recipe with me and it was very complicated! So when I saw your post I had to try these. I made these for thanksgiving for guests and now I’m getting ready to make them again for guests tomorrow. These are so easy and taste THEE BEST Ever!! This is now my go-to roll recipe for large gatherings….so thanks and God bless you!!!