Recipes Dream: Crescent Rolls Recipe

Thanksgiving was a relaxed occasion for us this year. We weren't eating until 5pm, so we took our good old time getting around to baking. Thanks to the extra time, I decided to try my hand at homemade crescent rolls. I love me some Pillsbury rolls from the cans that scare the crap out of me when they POP, but there is nothing like homemade bread. I like that you can control the amount of butter and sugar by making your own rolls. And this recipe really isn't that challenging. There are a lot of steps, but I promise--You can handle it!

Crescent Rolls Recipe

recipe adapted from Tasty Kitchen

Makes 16 rolls

Ingredients

1 Tbsp dry active yeast

1/4 cups warm water

1/4 cups butter

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1-1/2 whole beaten eggs

2-1/4 cups flour, Up To 1/2 Cup More If Necessary

Directions

Dissolve yeast into 1/2 cup warm water (110-115 degrees). Set aside and allow yeast to activate.

Heat butter and milk until butter is melted. Allow to cool.

Add sugar, salt, eggs, and yeast mixture to the milk mixture.

In a stand mixer, combine 2-1/4 cups of flour and the milk mixture. Mix until smooth and mixture begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If mixture is to sticky, slowly add up to 1/2 cup of flour while the mixer is running. The dough should be slightly sticky, but workable. Remember, a soft dough makes a light roll.

Cover the mixer bowl, and allow to rise until double, approximately an hour.

Divide dough into 2 equal pieces and form into balls.

Turn first ball onto a large floured board or clean counter. Using a rolling pin, dusted with flour, roll out ball into a 16″ to 17″ disk. (optional--at this point, you can spread butter across the dough before rolling. Yum.)

Cut like a pizza into 16 pieces. (Cut it into quarters, and the quarters into half, and then half again. This keeps the size of the rolls even.) Each piece of dough now looks like a long triangle. Taking hold of each end of the bottom of the triangle, stretch the dough gently and roll up to the point.

Place each roll onto a cookie sheet, curving it into a crescent shape. Make sure to tuck the end under the bottom of the roll (otherwise it will pop up and burn).