Homemade Sweet Crescent Rolls
Made with 3 simple ingredients - flour, butter, and cottage cheese - and drizzled with a sweet vanilla icing, these flaky and tender crescent rolls are perfect for a special occasion, dessert, or just to have around as snack!
Equipment
- Stand Mixer or Hand Beaters
- Rolling Pin
- Pizza Cutter
- Cookie Sheet
- Plastic Wrap
- Small Pot
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 1 cup salted butter - softened 226g
- 1½ cup small-curd cottage cheese 375g
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 240g
- 1 pinch salt
Icing
- 3 Tbsp butter melted
- 2 Tbsp cream or milk
- ½ tsp vanilla or almond extract
- 1¾ cups icing/powdered sugar
Instructions
Mixing the Dough
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, mix the butter and cottage cheese on medium-high until blended (or use hand beaters).
- Add the flour and the pinch of salt into the butter-cottage cheese mixture. Mix it until the ingredients come together to form a sticky, shaggy dough. You will still be able to clearly see the curds of the cottage cheese - it's not a smooth dough.
- Divide the dough into 2 eaqual parts and wrap each in plastic wrap, forming a thick, round, flat disk.
- Refridgerate the dough for at least 4 hours, or overnight, if making the day before.
Rolling the dough & baking the crescents
- Preheat the oven to 375° and remove one of the disks of dough from the fridge. Remove the plastic wrap from the dough.
- On a generously floured surface, roll the disk into a 17-18 inch circle. Do your best to roll the dough into an even circle, but don't stress if your circle is irregular or has jagged edges - this dough is VERY forgiving.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut the circle into quarters, then cut each quarter into 4, creating 16 wedges. It's good to try to keep the wedges as close to the same size as possible, but if some are bigger than others, it's ok. Again, these crescents are forgiving.
- Roll up the wedges, starting at the wide (outside) end, and put them seam side down on a parchment line cookie sheet, about 1 or more inches apart.
- Bake on the center rack of your oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. It's important not to under-bake the crescents. It is much better for these to be a little darker golden than not baked long enough.There will be dark brown spots on the crescents from the bits of cottage cheese on the surface of the dough - this is normal and delicious!
- Cool the crescents on a wire rack.
Making the icing
- Put the butter, milk or cream, and vanilla in a small pot on your stove on medium heat until the butter has melted. Do not boil.
- Gradually add the icing sugar to the melted butter mixture and wisk until smooth.
- Put a piece of parchment or wax paper under the cooling rack to reduce mess. Using a spoon, drizzle the icing over the warm crescents.
Notes
These crescents are best eaten the day they are made, but they can be stored in a sealed container if you happen to have any left over.
The dough can be made a few days in advance and kept in the fridge until you're ready to bake the crescents.