Nothing beats the smell of fresh Homemade Crescent Rolls baking in your oven, filling your kitchen with that warm, buttery aroma. Making them from scratch might seem intimidating, but this recipe proves just how simple and rewarding it can be!
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🥐Making crescent rolls from scratch costs significantly less than buying frozen varieties, especially when feeding a crowd!
My 2 Best Tips For Making Homemade Crescent Rolls
Proper Shaping: When rolling out the dough circles, work from the center outward to maintain even thickness throughout. Stretch the dough gently as you roll each triangle to create the characteristic crescent shape without tearing. Don’t skip the slight stretching step – it helps create those beautiful, elongated crescents.
Golden Finish: Brush the rolls with melted butter immediately after baking while they’re still hot – this creates that gorgeous golden sheen and adds extra flavor. The butter will soak into the crust slightly, creating an irresistible texture contrast. Don’t skip this final step as it makes all the difference in presentation.
I use bread flour instead of all-purpose to make these crescent rolls absolutely exceptional. This creates incredibly tender, flaky layers that rival any bakery!
These buttery crescents pair beautifully with holiday dinners, Sunday roasts, or weeknight pasta dishes. They complement almost any meal, and they have become a regular feature at my dinner table because everyone always asks for them.
You can also enjoy them on their own for breakfast or an afternoon treat! My favorite way is split open with butter and a drizzle of honey, or even with a bit of jam for something special.
🩷 Melissa
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Perfect Homemade Crescent Rolls Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup shortening*
- 6 ½ cups bread flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 packages 4 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast**
Instructions
- Measure 2 ½ cups of the flour into a large mixer bowl. Add yeast; blend.
- Combine water, shortening, sugar, and salt in a pan or microwave safe bowl. Heat until warm (120°-130°F), stirring constantly.
- Add liquids to flour-yeast mixture. Add eggs. Beat 1 minute at low speed. Scrape down dough from sides of bowl. Beat 3 more minutes at high speed.
- Switch to the dough hook, and, on low speed, gradually add the remaining flour. Add more flour as necessary to form a soft dough. Scrape down dough from sides of bowl.
- Cover bowl first with wax paper, then with aluminum foil. Refrigerate no more than 3 days for best results. Punch down dough every 30 minutes for the first few hours until it is chilled, then once a day.
- When ready to make rolls, divide the dough in to thirds. Refrigerator remaining dough until ready to shape.
- To shape crescent rolls: Roll ⅓ of the dough into a 10-inch circle. Cut into 12 pie-shaped pieces. Roll each piece of dough from the wide side toward the point, stretching the dough slightly as it is rolled. Place on baking sheet a little apart; curve ends.
- Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, 1 to 2 hours.
- Bake dinner rolls on baking sheet 10 to 20 minutes, depending on size, in preheated 400°F oven.
- Remove from pan and set on rack; brush with butter.
Notes
Nutrition
How To Make Homemade Crescent Rolls
Step 1: Combine 2½ cups flour with yeast in a mixer bowl. Heat water, shortening, sugar, and salt to 120-130°F, then add to flour mixture with eggs. Beat on low for 1 minute, then high for 3 minutes. Gradually add remaining flour with dough hook until soft dough forms.
Step 2: Cover bowl with wax paper and foil, then refrigerate up to 3 days. Punch down every 30 minutes for first few hours, then once daily. This develops flavor and makes dough easier to handle.
Step 3: Divide dough into thirds. Roll one portion into a 10-inch circle and cut into 12 wedges. Roll each wedge from wide end to point, stretching gently. Place on baking sheet and curve ends into crescent shape.
Step 4: Let shaped rolls rise covered in warm place until doubled, 1-2 hours. Bake at 400°F for 10-20 minutes until golden. Remove immediately and brush with melted butter while warm.
Recipe FAQs
Punching down the dough during the first few hours prevents over-fermentation and helps develop the gluten structure. Once chilled, the yeast activity slows significantly, so daily punching is sufficient to maintain the dough’s texture..
Once shaped, the rolls should be baked within 2-3 hours for best results. If you need longer storage, you can freeze the shaped unbaked rolls and bake them directly from frozen, adding 5-10 extra minutes to the baking time.
Yes, you can substitute the butter with vegan butter or additional shortening. The rolls will still be delicious, though they may have a slightly different flavor profile than the traditional version.
More Delicious Rolls Recipes to Consider
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Angie@Angie's Recipes
So soft and very tempting!
Mila
Barbara questa ricetta me la segno subito, perchè io ADORO i lievitati!!!!!
BRA-VIS-SI-MA!!!!
Becca @ Crumbs and Chaos
I love that these are make ahead…one less thing to do on the big day! These are gorgeous 🙂
angela@spinachtiger
Barbara
Crescent rolls are one of my must haves for Thanksgiving. You have made this look so easy and wonderful.
Carol
Oh YES! My favorite thing to bake-bread! I’ve made rolls in all kinds of shapes but never crescent rolls…..time to give them a try.
Thank you Barbara- I wish I could sample one of those beauties-they look amazing.
Anncats
Looks yummy – I love to bake and love getting new recipes and ideas. Thank you so much for your ideas and even better, they are presented in a way that makes it fun and easy to give them a try!
Barbara Schieving
What a sweet comment. Thank you so much. I really do try to give my readers confidence to try the recipes at home.
Lisa
Can you use all purpose flour?
Barbara Schieving
Yes, bread flour absorbs more water, so you might need more to add more flour.
linda
Actually, I think all purpose (unbleached of course) would be even better because you really don’t need all that protein in a simple roll. Bread yes, rolls no. It might create a softer roll than the higher protein flour.
Lydia
Hi, these look delicious…do you have any idea how it would work with gluten free flour? I have a hard time getting anything to rise right without regular flour.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Lydia – sorry I don’t have any experience baking gluten free rolls.
Melissa B
These sound delicious! Pinning and sharing on Twitter!
Claire @ Claire K Creations
Barbara these look wonderful! I’ve been hanging out for a recipe for these for a while now because we don’t have the pre-made dough here in Aus.
My Inner Chick
breathtakingly gorgeous. LOVE!
Megan - The Emotional Baker
I love the idea of making your own crescent rolls. These will be great at Thanksgiving!
Emily
I always use my pizza cutter for crescent rolls–makes it so easy!
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
It’s 3:30am right now and I can’t wait til morning to try these. OMG they look fantastic! Perfect for Thanksgiving dinner.
Mique
I could eat rolls for breakfast, lunch and dinner. These look beautiful!
Maria
The rolls are perfect!!
2 Sisters Recipes
Good Idea Barbara! I never made them just because there’s too much to prepare and cook on Thanksgiving day. We cooked last year for 20 people and this year we are about 9. But these looks delicious!
Stephanie @ PlainChicken
I love crescent rolls. I bet these are a million times better than the canned rolls. 🙂
Can’t wait to try them!
Rosa
Beautiful and very tempting!
Cheers,
Rosa
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar
I need to get on these asap! Crescents are my weakness.