Butter Roll Dessert Recipe With Crescent Rolls
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My shortcut Southern butter roll dessert recipe includes flaky crescent roll dough with a buttery cinnamon sugar filling baked in a deliciously sweet sauce.
The Southern Plate Family is plum full, brimming over actually, with brilliant people. I’m talking about you, y’all, and all of us collectively. Seriously, y’all have the best ideas! So when I posted my old-fashioned butter roll recipe on Southern Plate Family’s Facebook page recently, I had a few comments and emails about how some folks make them with crescent roll dough.
I was intrigued. I was inspired. And most importantly, I was hungry. So I took my intrigued, inspired, and hungry self into the kitchen and decided to give it a go. My mother called every five minutes to check on the progress. My house began to smell like it was placed two steps from the gates of Heaven. Then I pulled them butter rolls from the oven and had a taste while they were so hot steam was coming off my fork. Mama called and I told her, “I do not say this lightly, but these are actually better than the from-scratch version.”
Now, in case you don’t know what a Southern butter roll dessert recipe entails, let me tell you ALL about how delicious they are! Our crescent roll dough is filled with a buttery cinnamon sugar filling, then we bake it in a vanilla-flavored milk sauce. It’s a little bit thinner than a custard but just as delicious. Can you just picture the combination of a flaky butter roll with a sweet sauce? It’s the best, y’all.
So, if you’re not in your kitchen already making this butter roll dessert recipe, I’m not quite sure what is keeping you!
Recipe Ingredients
- Milk
- Crescent roll dough
- Cinnamon
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Butter
How to Make Butter Rolls With Crescent Rolls
What you need to start…
To start, you’re gonna need a surface to roll all this out onto. Usually, I get some waxed paper and sprinkle a little flour on it but I felt like being even easier today so I just grabbed a baking sheet and sprayed it with cooking spray.
Place your crescent roll dough on the greased or floured surface.
Roll it out and press the seams together so it is one big old sheet of dough.
Spread that whole thing with softened butter.
Don’t spread all the way to the edge but leave about 1/2 an inch all around.
Sprinkle that with sugar.
Sprinkle a wee bit of cinnamon over it if you like. You can also leave this off.
Roll that up longways and press it together a little bit with your hands.
Cut that into 10 or 12 pieces.
Just see where your knife ends up and cut. It doesn’t make no never mind if you have 9, 10, or 12 slices.
Spray an 8-inch round pan (a cake pan works fine) with cooking spray.
Place your slices in it.
Place milk and vanilla in a microwave-proof measuring cup and heat it in the microwave for about a minute or until it is very warm.
Stir your sugar into the warm milk and keep stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Pour the over the rolls.
Place this in a 350-degree oven and bake until rolls are golden brown (about 30-35 minutes).
I like to serve these warm as dessert at the end of a good country meal, but they are also delightful for breakfast or a coffee snack.
Just eat one. And then another. And you should probably have at least a third or fourth, just for quality control purposes, before serving them to your family, if there are any left!
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can quickly reheat them in the microwave, oven, or the air fryer.
Recipe Notes
- You can use Swerve as a replacement for sugar in this whole recipe if you like. A lot of folks have been on a Stevia kick lately so I gave it a go but Stevia is definitely not for me. Of course, if you have a favorite sweetener and want to try that, go for it. I’ve only done it with Swerve so I can’t speak for any others from a personal account.
- For more flavor, add 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg when you sprinkle on the ground cinnamon.
- If you like, you can also add some finely chopped apples, raisins, or chopped nuts to the filling.
Check out these other scrumptious Southern desserts:
Chocolate Chip Biscuits, Southern-Style
Ole Fashioned Southern Sugar Plum Cake
Mini Boston Cream Pies, Southern-Style
Lemon Chess Pie: A Southern Family Tradition
Homemade Chocolate Pudding, Southern-Style
Ingredients
- 1 8-ounce can crescent roll rough
- 1/4 cup softened unsalted butter or margarine
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Milk Sauce
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Roll out the crescent roll dough onto a greased or floured surface and press seams together.1 8-ounce can crescent roll rough
- Spread softened butter over the dough, leaving 1/2-inch of space at the edges on all sides. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Roll up longways and squeeze lightly with hands to seal.1/4 cup softened unsalted butter or margarine, 1/8 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- Cut into 10-12 slices and place slices in a greased 8-inch round pan or cake pan.
- Place milk and vanilla in a measuring cup and heat in the microwave until very warm. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Pour over the rolls.1 cup whole milk, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. Once removed from the oven, let them sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.
- Serve warm and enjoy!
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I plan to make these this weekend along with Cooked Cabbage & Great Northern Beans seasoned with Country Ham & homecooked deep fried Hushpuppies…YUM
Oh my goodness, I hope you enjoy enough for me!!!
Peggy, my I come for dinner? Sounds wonderful…
Diane, I’ll pick you up on my way. Peggy, set a few extra spots, k? 🙂
I remember my grandmother making these on her wood-burning
stove….now, that is really reaching back in my memory bank 🙂
Since she never used written recipes, I was never quite sure how
these were made. So, a big “thank you” for sharing this recipe!
I hope they taste just like your grandmother’s did and bring a flood of wonderful memories along with them!!
To echo Mark Stewart’s comment from earlier….I wonder if you could scoop out two or three tablespoons of frozen orange juice and add to these…or maybe some orange marmalade…to make them similar to All Steak’s orange rolls. Hmm……..
I’m sure you could. The milk sauce will dilute it some, of course, but concentrate should help with that. I may try that soon!
In the meantime, here is my orange roll recipe: https://www.southernplate.com/2012/07/easy-orange-rolls.html
We had these when I was in school back in the 50’s, but milk was not used. They were made with a simple syrup and no vanilla or cinnamon. Oh my goodness they were incredibly!!!!
I hope you get the chance to try these soon and love them just as much Brenda!!
I love ya’ll in the USA, but all these crescent rolls and biscuits and such are freaking expensive here in Canada. That can of crescent dough costs at least $3. But – I take your main point and will just make my own base for a heck of a lot less $. Thanks, friend.
At the top of this post is a link to the recipe where you make biscuit dough from scratch to make the original butter rolls, that may help. I’m glad you love us! I love y’all because I just made a big purchase and saved a ton of money buy buying it from Canada vs the same store’s United States counterpart! We’ll see how long the value of the dollar holds though 😉
I live in NYC and I just checked the prices for crescent rolls in my store: generic rolls- $2.50, brand name rolls–$3.50, organic brand – $3.99. I knew there was a reason I never buy convenience foods! Luckily for me, I have all the time in the world now (but not as much energy.) Yeah, that will be my excuse to eat one or three of these rolls, for energy! 🙂
If you have a Warehouse club near you, Sam’s, Costco, BJ’s, etc. check them for the crescent rolls. They come several tubes to a pkg., much less expensive than the grocery stores. Hope this helps.
My grandmother used to make this for us, but she rolled out homemade biscuit dough in a 4-5″ circle, put a blob of butter in the center, spoon of sugar and then close the edges up around the butter and sugar, place in a pan and then pour the milk and sugar mixture on top. The “rolls” should float in the milk and bake until they are golden brown on top, remove from the oven, turn each one over and brown the other side. Serve with lots of the liquid on top. These taste like gourmet……I don’t know what!!!
DELISH
Delish would be right Mamarose!!!
Do you have a hand-cranked food grinder? Mine is an antique. Grind some apples and add as tie past step before rolling up. Just try it. My Nana (born 1896) made this, using hand made biscuit dough. Apple Flip. Served warm with whipped cream on top. ❤ heaven. Now I’m gonna go try your way!
Do you have a hand-cranked food grinder? Mine is an antique. Grind some apples and add as your last step before rolling up. Just try it. My Nana (born 1896) made this, using hand made biscuit dough. Apple Flip. Served warm with whipped cream on top. ❤ heaven. Now I’m gonna go try your way!
I am going to have to try your way as well Stacy!! Thank you for sharing!!!
I was just going to ask about if you could add apples to it as that really sounded good to me. A friend just gave me a bag off her tree.
We all love these rolls, so, yesterday while I was at the grocery to pick up my 53 crescent roll cans, I saw the most amazing thing! Now, I live in a small town in the great state of Mississippi, so this might not be new to you but to me it is a wonderful thing. Pillsbury makes a can of Crescent sheet dough…………..ta-da. No more seams to squeeze together just one sheet of glorious dough. This is so important to me because my family loves these rolls and your sausage rolls and, well, you get the picture. Just wanted to share, now, off to the kitchen.
🙂 Oh my goodness, I am so glad you found those, they are FABULOUS!!! Not all stores carry them though and they are harder to find.
I would love to find the seamless crescent rolls. Never seen them locally. Will keep an eye out for them.