Old-Fashioned Butter Rolls
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This old-fashioned butter rolls recipe is something else. A Southern dessert specialty, it includes tender and moist cinnamon-spiced rolls in a creamy sweet custard-like sauce.
Some of our most beloved Southern dishes begin with flour. Biscuits, milk gravy, chicken and dumplings, and today’s recipe: old-fashioned butter rolls. I wish I could say I’d grown up eating butter rolls but the truth is I had this dessert for the first time about 10 years ago, thanks to my Grandmama.
So, what is a butter roll? Trust me when I say, it’s like heaven on a plate. If that isn’t a good enough description, its closest relative is a cinnamon roll. However, it’s baked in a rich homemade custard sauce that stays just runny enough to be considered kind of a custard gravy of sorts. They’re ooey-gooey, tender, and absolutely delicious. Oh Lawd, you need to make these.
Fortunately, they’re a relatively easy dessert to whip together using everyday ingredients like milk, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter, of course. By the way, like so many of my other dessert recipes on Southern Plate, you can use Splenda in this one. Just remember that the key to cutting down on the artificially sweetened taste is to use just a hair less than the recipe calls for (remove one or two tablespoons per cup) and be sure you don’t pack it. Splenda should be measured out light and fluffy.
After you give this butter roll recipe a go, feel free to use your favorite biscuit dough or even experiment with canned biscuits. It’s really easy and fuss-free. You may also enjoy this version using a shortcut (also known as Crescent Rolls).
Before we get baking, I have a favor to ask. Since this is a nearly forgotten recipe of days gone by, help me bring it back again so it won’t be lost to future generations. If you enjoy it, please pass this recipe for old-fashioned butter rolls on.
Recipe Ingredients
- Milk
- Sugar
- Self-rising flour
- Vanilla extract
- Shortening
- Cinnamon
- Butter at room temperature
How to Make Old-Fashioned Butter Rolls
Place your flour in a large bowl along with the shortening.
Cut shortening in with a fork…
until combined well, like this.
Pour in your milk.
Stir well.
Spray your pan.
You don’t have to do this but I was in the mood.
Put some flour on a clean countertop or wherever you feel like doing this.
You can use whatever biscuit dough is your favorite or just go by this recipe. This one is gonna hold up a little better in our sauce because it’s a little drier.
Press it together to form a ball.
Then pat it out with your hands a bit and roll it out into a rectangle-type object.
Notice I didn’t get too particular here. This is an old-fashioned Southern dessert and I figure Granny was busy with kids underfoot and hungry folks marching in the door. Back in those days folks cooked their food, not built a shrine to it.
Now we’re gonna smear our butter on the rolled-out biscuit dough.
All y’all who are on the real butter bandwagon need to give me my gold star today :).
Generously sprinkle all of our sugar over it.
Then comes the cinnamon, just a hint.
The dough and sauce mixed together with the butter and vanilla are going to have the most lovely flavor on their own!
Now roll that up.
Cut it in about one-inch slices (one inch-ish).
Remember, this is old-fashioned food. It’s not supposed to look a certain way, it’s just supposed to taste good.
Place your old-fashioned butter rolls into the prepared baking dish.
Now it’s time to make the sauce!
Add the milk to a saucepan, along with…
The sugar and…
The vanilla extract.
Stir that over low to medium heat until the milk is hot and the sugar dissolves.
Pour the milk sauce over your old-fashioned butter rolls.
Oh my.
I hope you’ve tasted the sauce by now.
If you haven’t, go ahead, I won’t look. ~covers eyes and grins~
Bake at 350 for about 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown on top.
Grab one of your butter rolls, place it on a plate to serve, and…
Spoon more sauce on them. Enjoy real old-fashioned goodness, from Granny’s kitchen to yours.
Storage
These butter rolls definitely taste the best hot out of the oven. But if you do have leftovers, you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. The roll might get soggy sitting in the sauce, so I’d recommend reheating in the oven to crisp it up once more.
Recipe Notes
- To make your own self-rising flour, see my FAQ page. Speaking of, I use a lot of both plain and self-rising flour at my house and have been known to dump whatever I grabbed first into my flour canister when it got empty. Sometimes I lose track of what is in there and need to know if it’s plain or self-rising. There is an easy fix. Dip your finger into the flour and lick it. If it tastes salty, it is self-rising. If it tastes bland, it is plain. I have to do this at least once a week but I’m perfectly alright with that because I decided long ago that being disorganized was just part of my charm. ~grins~
- If you don’t have shortening on hand, you can substitute it for an equal amount of butter.
- You can also substitute the ground cinnamon for ground nutmeg, or use a pinch of each.
- For something different, add some finely chopped apple, raisins, or chopped nuts to the filling.
You may also enjoy these other delectable old-fashioned dessert recipes:
Ole Fashioned Southern Sugar Plum Cake
Peanut Butter Pie Made the Old-Fashioned Way
Homemade Chocolate Pudding, Southern-Style
Easy Old-Fashioned Peach Cobbler Recipe
Ingredients
Butter Rolls
- 2 cups self-rising flour
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 stick butter, softened can use margarine
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Milk Sauce
- 2 cups milk
- 2/3 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Cut the shortening into the flour really well with a fork. Stir in the milk.2 cups self-rising flour, 1/2 cup shortening, 1/2 cup milk
- On a floured surface, dump out the dough and press together with your hands to form a ball.
- Roll out into a rectangle (about 7×10 in size). Spread softened butter over dough and then sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over the top. Roll it up like a jelly roll and press it together lightly.1 stick butter, softened, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Cut into nine slices about one inch thick each. Place into a lightly greased 8×8 baking dish.
- In a medium saucepan, combine all of the milk sauce ingredients. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to bubble lightly. Pour over the rolls in the pan.2 cups milk, 2/3 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until rolls are golden brown on top.
- Allow them to sit for a few minutes once done so the rolls soak up more sauce. After you put each roll on a plate, spoon more sauce over it.
Nutrition
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– Mary Anne Radmacher. Submit your quote here.
My Nana (born in 1896) was famous for her apple flip. Biscuit dough rolled out, then apples that have been put thru a metal hand-cranked grinder, cinnamon….roll up and cut like cinnamon rolls and place in casserole pan….pour over each with a sugar-coated bath and bake. Serve with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. So old fashioned and delicious. VERY MUCH LIKE YOUR BUTTER TOLL RECIPE
Oops. Should say sugar-water bath
Hey Christy, Thank you for this recipe and all of your recipes! I live in FL, now, but was born in Athens, Alabama. I love your recipes, stories and quotes. They say “you can take a girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl,” and it is true in my case. I grew up with southern cooking and that is the way I cook. I bought your “Come Home to Supper book and was telling a friend I would love to cook everything in it and she said she would be willing to eat it. Ha! That is saying a lot for her because she is a Yankee. Ha! Anyway, I was just checking to see if you had a butter roll recipe and you do. My Mom used to make it. She made it like you, but did not add cinnamon or nutmeg. I made it, too, but it has been a while, so I plan to make it this weekend. It is better in cool weather and it was a toasty 97 degrees here with a real feel of 106 degrees. I don’t like cooking in this heat, but maybe I will crank the A/C down and make it anyway. My Mom passed away 10 years ago this month. She was a wonderful lady. We still have relatives in Athens. She did not cook by a recipe, and I have been able to come close to re-creating some of her recipes. But I cannot make my biscuits taste like her’s! have your first recipe book on my Kindle, but plan to buy a hard copy. I read your new one like a book. I could not put it down. Your stories take me back home! Thanks!
I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying the recipes and stories!!! I have to agree, sometimes you just have to turn the air down and enjoy some good ol comfort food no matter how hot it is outside!!
My momma made these without the sauce, she would do them just like bread dough cinnamon rolls, butter the rolled out biscuit dough, and add the sugar and cinnamon and always raisins, bake in a hot oven so the butter and sugar would run down in the bottom of the pan and caramalize. The local store has a commercial variety of these called two bite cinnamon rolls, without the raisins, but not as gooey and tasty as my momma’s.
This sticky recipe is exactly the way stickies are supposed to be made! I was so excited to find this recipe! Thank you so much for posting this online!!!!!! 😀
Hope you enjoy Ashley!!
My Great Aunt use to make Butter Rolls for us as kids. If there was left over dough, she made biscuit puddings, rice puddings or butter rolls. She would roll out the dough and cut out circles using the top of a drinking glass. She would cut a hefty square of butter and place in th center of each circle of dough. She would then seal the dough around the square of butter by pinching it closed. The pinched bottom of each round was placed in a pan. When the pan was full, she would then pour the mixture atop and bake the Butter Roll. She only used white sugar to sprinkle on the dough, no nutmeg or cinnamon as I have seen in some recipes. The dessert was a sweet buttery treat that I miss.
What a wonderful memory!!!
I grew up eating these. My mother calls them “sugar titties”. I won’t even go into why my family calls this dessert by that name. Just know that the recipe is spot on, except we use all butter, unsalted. Again thanks for posting. So many people need to know about butter rolls!
Hey! I made these tonight for my family. My 10 year old Katie helped me. They were super easy and really good! My husband said they tasted like the Carnival cruise desert “Bitter and Blanc” a yummy bread pudding they serve. This is going to be a family favorite. Thanks Christy!
My Grandmother also made this delicious dessert which was and ccontinues to be my favorite. Thank God, y Grandmother is still with us at age 94 but cannot remember the recipe anymore. No one else is the family has been able to make it like she did I’m going to talk with her and see if this is like her recipe. .Thanks for sharing!