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.
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