Homemade crescent rolls are soft, buttery, and absolutely delicious. They’re the perfect roll to complement any meal, a holiday feast, or even just as the bread for your favorite sandwich!
One of my favorite parts of any meal is the rolls. Pretty sure I’ve never been to a restaurant that serves rolls and only had one (looking at you Longhorn!).
A good roll in my mind is soft, fluffy, and has the perfect amount of salt even if you don’t add butter. It’s good for eating on its own, eating with butter or jam, and great for making into sandwiches.
These crescent rolls are the perfect addition to any meal and my favorite rolls to make for Thanksgiving. Add a little turkey with some mashed potatoes with stuffing and roasted root vegetables on the side for the perfect meal.
This recipe takes a little time (all yeast rolls do), but most of that time is just letting the rolls rise. And the time is worth it – they get SO fluffy and soft. The rest of the recipe is super easy and pretty much foolproof, unless you let the rolls burn. Hint – no one wants burnt rolls!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Oil – this recipe works well with avocado oil (if you have it) or canola oil. You want the oil for the moisture but don’t want the flavor that comes with something like olive oil or coconut oil.
- Butter – the butter in this recipe is used for buttering the tops of the rolls when they come out of the oven (like you do with pizza loaf). I recommend using salted high-quality butter since it’s a flavor that you’ll taste, not just one that gets baked in.
- Yeast – you want the quick acting dry yeast so it combines with the warm water quickly.
- Flour – all-purpose flour works best in these rolls, which hopefully most people have on hand at home!
Instructions
Like I mentioned before, the time it takes to make these homemade crescent rolls is a little long, but there’s nothing hard about it. Most of that time is just spent waiting.
That waiting time is the perfect time to make a little striped delight, pumpkin crisp, or chocolate turkey treats for dessert!
1 – Activate the Yeast
The first thing you need to do is combine the yeast with warm, NOT HOT, water. You don’t want to kill the yeast with scaling hot water.
Combine the two, cover, and let stand for about 10 minutes. Go make yourself a glass of holiday punch while you wait.
2 – Make the Dough
Heat milk until just warm, again not scaling. Nobody like burnt milk.
Beat the eggs, sugar, and oil with a whisk.
Add the milk and yeast to the egg mixture once ready.
Add five cups of the flour and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. This helps from over beating the dough.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and hand knead until a moderately soft dough forms. It will still be slightly sticky but you should be able to handle it okay.
3 – Let Dough Rise
Place the dough into a large bowl (at least 3x the size of the dough) that’s been sprayed with non-stick spray or wiped with oil to keep the dough from sticking.
Allow the dough to rise in place for 2-3 hours or until the dough has at least doubled in size. I typically do at least two hours and if I have time, three.
4 – Roll Your Homemade Crescent Rolls
Grease a 12×18 cookie sheet and set aside. If you’ve doubled the recipe, you’ll need two!
Lightly flour a surface of some sort. I have this non-stick mat that I use for all of my rolling out dough!
Punch down the dough and put it on the surface. Keep your hands floured and have flour handy if necessary for handling the dough.
Divide the dough into thirds of somewhat equal size.
Roll one section of the dough into an 8-10″ circle. Using a pizza cutter, cut the circle into eight triangles like you would a pizza.
Starting at the wider side of the triangle, roll each of the triangles into a crescent roll, with the point of the triangle on the outside.
Place the crescent roll point side down on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the other crescent rolls and and place them fairly close together – touching is okay!
If you want to separate them more and use a second baking sheet, go for it. We did that for the photos in this post – but you can also just bake them closer together and fit all 24 rolls on one baking sheet!
Just make sure to remember that they are going to double in size when they rise again – just flip them the opposite way of these photos – they should all fit!
Place a paper towel over the baking sheet and let the rolls rise one more time, until they’re doubled in size.
5 – Bake the Crescent Rolls
Once the rolls have doubled in size, bake for five minutes on the bottom rack of your oven at 400 degrees. Then move to the middle rack and bake for another 5 minutes until lightly golden on top.
Remove from the oven and immediately brown the tops with melted butter.
Serve warm with your favorite meal, extra butter, honey, or jam! These also make great sandwiches with your favorite meat!
Expert Tips
Cut your triangles as evenly as possible so that your rolls are all about the same size. I like to cut it like a pizza – in half, then half, then half again.
Brush the rolls with butter while they’re warm. This helps the butter really get into the rolls and add to the flavor – much better than if you do it once they’re cooled or sat for a while.
Double the batch by doubling the recipe then dividing the dough into six equal sections. Everything else will be the same, you’ll just do six small balls of dough instead of three.
Recipe FAQs
These crescent rolls freeze beautifully! Just bake like normal then freeze in an airtight container until you’re ready to eat. Toss in the oven or freezer oven for a few minutes to let the rolls thaw and slightly warm then enjoy.
Unfortunately these crescent rolls require yeast. If you’d like a non-yeast option, try something like this honey cornbread or these garlic breadsticks.
This recipe makes 24 homemade crescent rolls. You’ll be dividing the dough into three sections and cutting eight triangles per each, 8×3 = 24 rolls.
These crescent rolls would be really good with baked ziti, Instant Pot fettuccine Alfredo, grilled balsamic chicken, and of course – Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner!
More Easy Bread Recipes
- Cranberry Orange Bread
- Chocolate chip zucchini bread
- Homemade bread bowls
- Pineapple coconut bread
- Easy banana bread
Homemade Crescent Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 TBS active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup plus 1 TBS warm water
- 1 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup canola or avocado oil
- 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 TBS butter melted
Instructions
- Combine the yeast and warm water in a bowl. Cover and let sit for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast.
- Heat milk until warm, not boiling.
- Beat eggs, sugar, and oil together in a large bowl.
- Add yeast mixture and milk to bowl with egg mixture. Stir until well combined.
- Add in five cups flour and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.
- Lightly flour a flat surface. Put your dough on the surface and hand knead to form a soft dough. It will still be slightly sticky but you should be able to handle it.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap that's been sprayed lightly with cooking oil and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 2-3 hours.
- Lightly grease a 12x18 baking sheet and set aside.
- Punch down dough then put onto a lightly floured surface. Add additional flour if necessary so you can handle the dough.
- Divide dough into three equal balls. Roll one ball into an 8-10" circle then cut with a pizza cutter into eight equal triangles.
- Roll each triangle from the wide size to the pointed side. Place the rolls point side down onto the baking sheet you set aside earlier. Repeat with all the triangles and all three balls of dough.
- Cover and let the crescent rolls rise for another 15 minutes or until about doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees while rolls are rising.
- Bake for five minutes on the bottom rack then move to the middle rack and bake for another five minutes or until lightly golden brown.
- Remove the rolls from the oven and immediately brush with melted butter. Serve.
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