Butter Roll Dessert Recipe With Crescent Rolls
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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~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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DEF WILL TRY THESE BEFORE DOING MY TRES LECHE CAKE-SOUNDS LIKE THE SAME SATISFYING TASTE. MY I GIVE A HINT IN CUTTING THESE WITH EASE?…
GET A BIG PIECE OF DENTAL FLOSS, HOLD EACH END WITH FINGERS WHILE SLIDING THE FLOSS UNDER THE ROLL. BRING UP ENDS OF FLOSS AND PULL IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS TO ‘CUT’ THE DOUGH CLEANLY/NEATLY WITHOUT MASHING THE DOUGH.
SHOW ‘EM HOW CHRISTY. MY SPLAININ’ MIGHT NOT BE TOO GOOD, BUT I KNOW YOU’LL ‘GET IT’.
Can you use orange juice to make orange rolls like those in Cullman?
Thank you so much for reposting this recipe! I made this all the time when I lived in Maryland and it completely fell of my rotation when I moved back to Florida. If anyone out there is on the fence about this recipe go for it! It is a great dessert. I’m not a fan of cinnamon so I do skip that but, oh my goodness this is so yummy. It’s back on the rotational as of tonight. PS… I always make extra milk sauce.
Oh goodness, I remember my Grandma used to make this. She was a sweet lover and always had to have something sweet at mealtime. They were tobacco farmers and probably didn’t have much money to spare. They raised their own vegetables, raised chickens and pigs. Boy those were the days… My dad would have been 100 years old this year, so I’m not sure how old Grandma would be this year… I’m 65 years old, but boy those were the days. We didn’t know we were poor back then, but we always had enough to eat… And it was good food too..
Hi Katie, you may not have had much money growing up but it certainly sounds like you were rich beyond measure!
Christy, thank you for this recipe. My mother-in-law made these from scratch, did not use a recipe and they were to die for. Unfortunately, she passed away before she ever got around to writing down the recipe for me.
Congratulations on being Alumni Of The Year at UNA. Just read the great article in the spring edition of the UNA Alumni Magazine. I graduated from UNA in 1960, but it was Florence State Teachers College at that time. I loved that place and it was one of the best times of my life.
I look forward to whatever you post, I know it will be inspiring and something good to put on the table!!!!
Thank you so much JoAnn!!! I was so honored to be chosen!!! I hope you enjoy the butter rolls!!
My mother made something similar to this but hers were chocolate rolls and she made hers from scratch. You could probably adapt this to be chocolate rolls though couldn’t you? Just an idea…
I am sure you could Maxine!!! Great idea!
This is Wednesday and I shall, with great fortitude, wait until Monday to test out this recipe. I will be at my daughter’s home pet sitting for her for a week. This will allow me the proper amount of time to perfect my “tweeks” to this recipe before she gets home and I make them for her and her hubby. I think 7 days should be enough time to make it perfect, don’t you? I could make 2 recipes of it per day, right? Since I have never even heard of them, this will be epic!!!
I bet you get them just right on the first try Susan!!! I have faith in you!!