If you love those crescent rolls that come in a tube, then you will love this homemade low sodium version. These fluffy, buttery crescent rolls are a delicious addition to any dinner table. And if you happen to be lucky enough to have your father-in-law’s homemade jam made with fruit from his cherry tree (like me!), these will get gobbled up in no time.
As we go into the holiday season, these crescent rolls will be really nice to have in your back pocket. They are buttery, fluffy, and delicious. The best part? You can even make them ahead and refrigerate or freeze them until you are ready to bake them. The refrigerated version turns out exactly the same as fresh. When I freeze them, they lose some of their shape in the oven and aren’t quite as fluffy, but are still really good. Below I go into some detail about tips for making crescent rolls, followed by tips for making these ahead. And for those of you who love pictures with instructions, I put a bunch at the end of this post (after the recipe).
Tips for making crescent rolls:
The first time I made homemade crescent rolls I made a couple of mistakes. Let me tell you all about those mistakes so that you won’t do the same.
I rolled the dough a little too thick. I underestimated how much these little guys would rise as they baked and ended up with rolls that, well, unrolled in the oven. They tasted fine, but crescent rolls they were not.
I rolled the dough so that the circle was too small. This meant that the little wedges weren’t long enough to wrap around themselves the way that a crescent roll needs to.
After I made those mistakes, I rolled the dough thinner and cut them into more wedges. This makes sort of long, skinny wedges (see photos at the end of this post to see what I mean). They will look tiny when you roll them up into crescents. Don’t panic. They will look tiny on the baking sheet. Don’t panic. They will even look tiny after you let them rise a bit on the pan. Don’t panic. They will grow quite a bit in the oven and will look like your average crescent roll.
Tips to make these ahead:
I have two methods for you to make these little guys ahead. The first is a refrigerator method, best if you are planning on baking them within a few days. The second is a freezer method, which will work if you want to pull them out a few weeks (or even a couple of months) down the road.
Refrigerator method – Follow the instructions in the recipe up through step 4. This means you will mix up the dough and let it rise until it has doubled in size. Punch the dough down, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Make sure that you give it some room to grow since it will continue to rise for a while after you’ve put it in the fridge. Do not put it in a breakable container with a tight-fitting lid (like a glass jar). Because the dough will continue to rise, it would create pressure in the jar and could break inside your fridge. When you want to bake the rolls, allow the dough to come to room temperature and then just continue with the recipe from step 6 onward.
Freezer method – Follow the instructions in the recipe up through step 7. As you shape the crescent rolls, place them on a flat surface (like a platter or a cookie sheet) that will fit in your freezer. The rolls should not be touching, but they can be close together. Immediately place them, covered, into the freezer. Allow the rolls to freeze solid (at least a few hours). Once they are frozen solid, you can transfer them to a freezer bag or other freezer-safe container and put them back in the freezer. When you are ready to bake the rolls, remove as many as you’d like from the freezer and place them directly on a baking sheet. Allow them to thaw and continue to rise until they have doubled in size (again, likely a few hours). Then just bake them at 400°F for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Here’s how they look when I baked them at difference stages of thaw. The first one I baked straight from the freezer (thawed for 0 minutes). They took a couple minutes longer than the fresh rolls to get brown and lost a little shape, but still tasted great. The second set I allowed to thaw completely, but did not give them any extra time to rise (thawed for 45-60 minutes). Again, these ones lost their shape and took a little longer to bake but still tasted fine. Lastly, I let a few thaw completely and then rise on the baking sheet (thawed for 1:45 to 2:00 hours). This version baked for the same time as the fresh ones and seemed to hold their shape slightly better and were a bit more fluffy than the other two.
Oh and one last tip (and this goes for making any yeast bread)
When the dough is still in the dough rising, if you place the dough in the oven with the light on (make sure the oven itself is off), it makes a nice warm spot to let your dough rise. The first time you try this, check on your dough every 15 minutes or so to make sure that it isn’t getting too warm. You are shooting for about 85°F.
PrintButtery Crescent Rolls
SODIUM COUNT: 8 mg sodium per crescent roll, 274 mg in the entire recipe.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water (about 110°F to 115°F)
- 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast (1 package)
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- ½ cup powdered milk
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup softened butter
- 3 ¼ to 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
Instructions
- Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water in a large bowl. Let rest for a few minutes until the yeast begins to foam.
- Whisk in the powdered milk, egg, and softened butter. (The butter will leave a few lumps; that is okay.)
- Add the flour about ¾ cup at a time until the dough is firm enough to knead (roughly 2.5-3 cups). Once you can handle the dough, begin to knead it, adding the remaining flour as needed. (I like to knead mine on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper to make clean up easy.) Knead the dough for 5-8 minutes (you can use a large stand mixer with a dough hook for this). The dough should be smooth and elastic when you are finished.
- Place the dough into a cleaned, oiled bowl. Put the bowl in a warm place and let rise until the dough has doubled in size (about 60-90 minutes).*
- Punch down the dough and allow it to rise once more until doubled in size (about 30 minutes).
- Punch the dough down once more and divide into three balls. Working with one ball of dough at a time, roll out the dough until it is about 10-12″ in diameter and about ¼ inch thick.
- Cut the dough into 12 equal-sized wedges. Roll the wedges into crescent shapes, beginning at the widest part of the wedge. **
- Place on a baking sheet several inches apart, curving the ends in so that they are half-moon shaped. Cover with a light towel and let rise for about 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Once the oven has preheated, bake the rolls for about 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove the rolls from the oven and enjoy!
Notes
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 18 servings (2 crescent rolls per serving)
Sodium: 15.2 mg, Calories: 129.4, Total Fat: 3.1 g, Saturated Fat: 1.7 g, Cholesterol: 17.1 mg, Carbohydrates: 21.6 g, Fiber: 0.7 g, Sugar: 3.1 g, Protein: 3.6 g.
* If you are going to refrigerate the dough for later in the week, stop at this step. Punch the dough down, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. When you want to bake the rolls, allow the dough to come to room temperature and continue with the recipe from step 6 onward.
** If you are going to freeze the rolls, stop at this step. As you shape the crescent rolls, place them on a flat surface (like a platter or a cookie sheet) that will fit in your freezer. Once they are frozen solid, you can transfer them to a freezer bag or other freezer-safe container and put them back in the freezer. When you are ready to bake the rolls, remove as many as you’d like from the freezer and place them directly on a baking sheet. You can either bake them immediately ( 8-10 min at 400°F) or allow them to thaw/rise (see blog post for the differences).
The dough ball before it is rolled out.
After the dough has been rolled into a circle.
The dough cut into 12 long, skinny wedges.
After a couple of crescents were made from the wedges.
The crescents placed onto a baking sheet before they’ve risen on the pan.
The crescent rolls on the pan after they’ve risen.
The crescent rolls, hot from the oven.
…and the rolls served with delicious homemade jam.
Kathy, THANK YOU for sharing this recipe!! You have no idea how blessed I feel to have stumbled upon your site! Divine intervention, really. And you have a real gift…thank you for sharing it with us!!
★★★★★
You’re welcome! I hope your kiddo ❤️’s these rolls.
Why powdered milk? I’m assuming you mix it with water?
Hi Carol. No, you don’t want to mix the powdered milk with water for this recipe. You’d just use the dry milk powder. I add powdered milk because it adds flavor. I have not had good luck with using water (only) in my bread recipes – they just end up tasting very bland. If you wanted you could replace the water and the dry milk powder with about 1.25 cups milk (which you’d warm a bit to help the yeast develop). I have not tested this specific recipe with milk so I can’t guarantee the results, but it should work okay. Also, I use powdered milk because I always have it on hand, whereas I don’t always have milk in my fridge. I grew up using powdered milk in bread (thanks, Mom!), and I’ve just continued using it as an adult.
This recipe looks delicious. The recipe I was wanting to replace crescent dough calls for the dough to be rolled out into a 9X13 pan as a base for bars. Would this work for that also?
Does this recipe use unsalted or salted butter? Wanted to ask before I try it out. Thanks!!
The recipe uses unsalted butter. 🙂
Can I use bread flour instead of AP?
I haven’t tested these with bread flour, so I can’t guarantee results. That said, I think bread flour would be fine.
Do I have to use powdered milk? Can I just use the cup of water and 11/4 cup of skim milk? Making for thanksgiving dinner?
Replacing the water with 1.25 cups milk should work fine. Good luck!