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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Someone gave me this recipe when my kids were little. They called it sweet rolls I believe. I lost the recipe about 12 years ago when we had a fire. I haven’t thought of these in a long time, but I may have to make them soon to see if the kids remember them. Thanks for sharing.
My oven is banjaxed. Do you think these would come out okay on the stovetop? If I were to use a cast iron pot?
I would like to know also, I have been waiting for a reply wondering….
There is always a way to make things like this on the stove top. I would use the heaviest skillet you have (thick) and cook them on medium low. I can’t tell you a time because I’ve never done it but just keep an eye on them an cover the skillet while they cook to help duplicate the oven like environment 🙂
This was a very forgiving recipe and crazy good! Some of the seams opened up and it wasn’t rolled tightly enough so some sugar fell out; I used skim milk because that was all I had. It all baked up just fine! The only thing I might do differently next time is use a 9″ cake pan because it spit a few bubbles out during baking.
I am so glad you liked it SaKay!!!
Momma used to make something similar whem we were children, but sprinkled the dough with a with a mixture of Hersey’s cocoa and sugar amd added some of that to the hot milk. She got the recipe from her mother. We called them chocolate rolls.
Wasn’t that the best treat to come home to after a day at school? Thanks for sharing!!!!
I know what this is! Heaven in a pan.
Amen!!!
My Grandma was born in 1911. She use to make these for us all the time and the chocolate ones also, but we called them stickies, and they look just like hers. I remember how good they smell cooking and taste even better. Thank you.
Oh my goodness, that is a great name for them!!! They do smell wonderful cooking, makes it really hard to wait until they are done!!!
Christy, my mom was born in 1902 and she raised 7 children by herself. She made these all the time and we thought they were the greatest thing since sliced bread, but of course we didn’t have sliced bread back then. I am going to try this new version and I did buy the crescent roll sheet by mistake at publix. I just cut them in triangles.