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Crescent dinner rolls are a staple for holiday dinners. But instead of using canned or premade bread dough, I decided to make homemade crescent rolls from scratch. Warm fresh crescent rolls taste so much better than anything that you find in a can. They are buttery and fluffy, perfect for Christmas dinner. The bread is buttery enough without any added butter, but they taste even better topped with more butter or served with your favorite jelly for a breakfast bread.
The crescent rolls are started with an easy yeast bread dough. The yeast dough is very easy to make, but it dose take some time to allow it to rise. But you can refrigerate the bread dough overnight before shaping it to save time the next day. Instead of activating the yeast in water, warm milk is used. The milk will make the bread dough more soft, butter and one egg are also used in this dough. The dough needs to kneaded on a floured surface until it is smooth, before placing it into a large bowl that has been greased with non stick cooking spray. Cover the bowl with either a towel or plastic wrap and allow it to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until it is doubled in size.
When the dough has doubled in size, deflate the dough and place it onto a floured surface. Divide the dough in half and roll each half of the dough out into a 12-inch circle. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough like you would a pizza into 12 even triangles. Roll the crescent roll dough up starting from the wide side. Shape the dough into a crescent shape and place them onto large greased baking sheets. Cover the dough again and let it rise for another 30-60 minutes. Bake the rolls until lightly browned.
Homemade Crescent Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups warm milk
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 large egg
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened
Instructions
- Place milk into a large measuring cup. Heat in the microwave until warmed. Stir granulated sugar and active dry yeast into the warm milk. Let sit for 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Add in melted butter, egg and the yeast mixture. Mix until a dough forms.
- Dump dough out onto a floured surface. Knead dough until smooth, adding in more flour as needed. Place dough into a large greased bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Deflate dough and divide in half. Roll out each half of the dough into a large circle. Spread each half with 2 tablespoons of the softened butter. Cut each half into 12 even triangles using a pizza cutter.
- Roll up and form each into a crescent. Place crescent rolls onto greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise for another 30-60 minutes. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden browned.