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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Nutrition
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I love these butter rolls so much. In fact, my whole family loves these. They ask for them often but, oh I don’t want to mess up the counters with my floured biscuit dough mess. Now I will definitely make these more often since they will be less messy with the crescent dough. Thanks for all of your wonderful recipes and stories.
The littlies loved these…and of course, I got to wondering how they would be with chocolate sauce. So, I made them again, but this time I used your chocolate gravy recipe for the sauce. So YUM!!!
My husband grew up with butter rolls. I have tried to perfect the hang of it but it is always “almost”. His mother used hot boiling water & sugar for the sauce. I made your recipe for lunch – it was a big hit! Thanks so much, this is so much easier than making dough, & refrigerating it overnight. He was smiling from ear to ear!!
I never heard of these – but can’t wait to give them a try. Too bad there’s noons else to share with!
That might be a good thing Judy, LOL. I could eat the whole pan!
Was going to log off and then I looked on the right side of the chicken fried steak recipe page and I got sucked in to yet another OMG recipe of yours, the Shortcut Butter Roll dessert. Looks AMAZING!
It immediately occurred to me that a savory version also would be super-easy, with cheese and garlic and herbs instead of the sugar and cinnamon. OMG. Endless possibilities.
I saw your note regarding the sauce and thought, for a savory version, I could adjust amount of milk/vanilla (to decrease sauciness). Omit vanilla if making a savory version, or maybe use — GASP! — rum extract! OMG. *excited!* Now I REALLY MUST LOG OFF! Thank you Christy, you are an inspiration. You totally ROCK!
I hope you enjoy Erika!!! Let me know how it goes, can’t wait to hear how they turn out.
I’ve made “my” savory version twice and oooh, yum! 1st time, omitted the milk sauce, 2nd time, used a LITTLE bit of heavy cream (purchased for another recipe that I now can’t remember!). Rolled out dough, spread butter, sprinkled generously with garlic powder (raw minced garlic would have more “bite” than I wanted). Sprinkled generously with summer savory the 1st time, used Italian herbs the next time, and lots of it (1T?). Added a GENEROUS layer of Parmesan cheese (NOT Parmigiano Reggiano. Like you, I don’t have the budget for that). Rolled it up. Because it’s warm, I refrigerated it to make cutting easier; then cut (8 pcs) and put into 9-in. cake pan. Added cream so it was just a little bit more than covering bottom of pan. Mine were done in 25 minutes, (but I checked ’em at 20 to be safe). Definitely not low-cal, definitely not an everyday treat, but O.M.G.! Next time I get crescent roll dough (or if I can find the SHEETS, which I prefer), I’m gonna try the sweet dessert preparation you have here. Aloha Christy!
I made these with some variation to it as FAST as I could after you posted this yummy recipe! It was a HUGE hit! Thank you so much!
Oh – and my variation was that I used less butter and I used cheesy biscuit mix instead of crescent rolls. Next time I just want to add more milk , but I fixed that by adding more after it was done when we ate it!
THANK YOU Christy!
Carol 🙂
These sound wonderful! I plan to bake them real soon.
I continue to enjoy your recipes. Have been gone from home for the last two weeks and am so glad to be back now so I can be sure to get your e-mails!