Homemade Cinnamon Crescent Rolls – Made with Cottage Cheese

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Making crescent rolls does not have to be an all-day baking experience. This easy recipe will show you how to make Cinnamon Crescent Rolls with Cottage Cheese with just six-ingredients. These rolls are a family favorite for breakfast, brunch, and dessert.

Everyone loves these sweet tender and fluffy crescents filled with cinnamon and topped with a sweet glaze.  They are melt in your mouth deliciousness.

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Homemade rolls are always the best, you can smell them baking, and if you are lucky enough you can grab one warm right out of the oven when no one is looking.

This easy cinnamon crescent recipe also known as butter horns has an unusual ingredient that makes these rolls very rich and tender. Cottage cheese along with butter and flour make up the dough for these rolls. I know you are thinking why would I add the humble cottage cheese to a dough?

Why bake with cottage cheese

• Cottage cheese adds richness to baked goods
• Cottage cheese is a dairy product that adds flavor and fat to your baked product
• The curds in cottage cheese add texture
• The fat in cottage cheese makes baked goods tender and flaky

I think you will be amazed at how easy these rolls are to make and are actually fun to cut and roll up into the crescents.

The ingredient list for the dough

• Flour – use AP flour
• Butter – salted or unsalted butter
• Cottage Cheese – small curd and full fat
• Cinnamon

The ingredient list for the icing drizzle

• Powdered sugar
• Milk – whole milk makes a creamier icing

How to make, bake and ice these bite-sized cinnamon rolls

These tender rolls are really easy to make, just make sure you chill the crescents before baking

Step 1. Cut cold butter into very small diced pieces and place it in the refrigerator to keep cold. Optionally, you can also grate the cheese which does make it easier to mix. The smaller the pieces of butter the better.

Step 2. In a large bowl add the flour, cottage cheese, and cold butter then mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon until the flour is combined.

Step 3.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, at this point the dough will not all be clumped together and will be in pieces.  With your hands gather all the dough pieces and form them into one large round of dough.

Step 4.  Cut the one round of dough in half and reform it into a round disk. Wrap the dough disks in plastic and keep it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to rechill the butter.

Step 5.  On a floured surface take one of the dough disks and roll it out to a 10 – 12 inch  1/8″ thickness circle.

Step 6. Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter cut the circle into fourths, then cut the fourths into eighths, then cut again to make sixteen triangles.

Step 7. Sprinkle cinnamon over the dough.

Step 8.  At the wide area of the triangle, roll the dough up toward the pointed end of the triangle to form the crescent shape and place it on a rimmed baking sheet with the tip side down. You can use a Silpat or parchment, but some butter will melt out of the rolls onto the sheet pan. Yes, you will have to wash the pan after the rolls bake. It’s worth it though!

Step 9. If it is a hot day, you may want to put the rolls in the fridge before baking to rechill the dough for ten minutes.

Step 10. Repeat with the other dough disk.

Step 11. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 F. degree oven until golden brown. Remove the rolls to a cooling rack.

Step. 12. To make the icing drizzle, combine the powdered sugar and milk, mix well and then drizzle the icing over the cooled crescent rolls.

See just how easy it is to make these bite-sized Cinnamon Crescent Rolls that are soft and tender and topped with a sweet icing.

Perfect for breakfast, brunch, and dessert

Crescent Roll baking tips

• When you place the rolls on the baking sheet put the tip of the roll on the bottom, otherwise, during baking, the rolls can unroll a bit
• Use cold butter, you want to see the pieces of butter in the dough
• Don’t overmix the dough, it will be loose and shaggy when you turn it out of the bowl
• Butter does melt out of the rolls while baking so it is best to use a rimmed baking sheet. I gotta say it again, that butter does melt out of the rolls while baking. Tip:
  • Keep the dough cold and chill the crescents before baking, just for 10 minutes
  • After 10-15 minutes pull of the baking pan out of the oven and spoon off the melted butter.
• You can make the dough and refrigerate overnight, or you can preroll the crescents and place them in the refrigerator overnight and bake the next day
• These rolls are not very big, just bite-sized, if you prefer bigger rolls just cut into 8ths
• Not into cinnamon or just want something, not cinnamon, try adding other spices such as cardamom, pumpkin pie spice, or make it savory with chili powder or rosemary
• You can add flavoring to the icing drizzle, add spices or extracts for added flavors
• You can even make these cottage cheese rolls without a filling and they are just as delicious

Tools you need to make these rolls

Half Sheet Pan– I keep three of these for baking cookies, rolls, bread, and sheet pan dinners

Mixing bowl– a large bowl works best in order to mix the dough well

Rolling Mat – I use muslin baking mats that I find are a must to use with pastry

Pizza Cutter – using this cutter makes it easy to cut the dough into wedges

Cinnamon just makes baked goods so spicy delicious, try these other recipes with cinnamon

• Apple Cider Bread made with oatmeal and spiced with cinnamon
• A fall favorite Pumpkin Bread with cranberries, this bread is super moist with lots of amazing flavors
• This Vanilla Bean Cake is baked in a cast-iron skillet with a simple sprinkling of powdered sugar and cinnamon on top
• These delicate Cinnamon Madeleines are the perfect little dessert with your afternoon tea or coffee
• Need a snack for movie or game night, make a big bowl of this Cinnamon Apple Caramel Corn, it’s sweet and perfectly crunchy
• Baked Apples filled with pecans and cranberries and plenty of cinnamon are simple to make.

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5 from 9 votes

Cinnamon Crescent Rolls with Cottage Cheese

These-easy-to make homemade Cinnamon Crescent Rolls are made with cottage cheese that makes these bite-sized rolls deliciously rich and tender. Add a sprinkling of cinnamon inside and a sweet icing drizzle for delicious flavors.

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Course Breakfast, brunch, Dessert

Cuisine Appetizers

Keyword cinnamon crescent rolls, how to make crescent rolls

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

chill time 10 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings 32 rolls

Calories 107kcal

Author Jere' Cassidy

Equipment

Rolling Mat

large mixing bowl

pizza cutter

Rimmed Baking Sheet

Cinnamon shaker

Ingredients

Crescent Rolls

• 2 cups AP flour
• 2 cups cottage cheese, small curd
• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon you can add more or less

Icing Drizzle

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbls. milk

Instructions

Making the Crescent Rolls

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

• Cut the cold butter into very small cubes (the size of peas) or you can grate the butter. Rechill the butter while prepping the other ingredients.
• In a large bowl add all the flour, cottage cheese, and the chilled butter cubes and mix with a spoon until well combined
• Divide the dough into two equal portions, wrap in plastic, and chill until firm about 15 minutes.
• On a lightly floured surface roll each dough portion into a 1/8" thick circle about 10-12 inches.
• Sprinkle the dough with cinnamon.
• Cut the dough circle into quarters, then cut each quarter into four smaller triangles.
• Roll each small wedge starting at the widest part and place each crescent on a rimmed cookie sheet, seam side down.
• Note: If you have room in your fridge, chill the crescents for 10 minutes before baking. Butter will melt out of the rolls during baking, so use a rimmed baking sheet. After 10-15 minutes pull the baking sheet out of the oven and spoon off the melted butter then continue baking. I bake these rolls frequently, and I have had times hardly any butter melted out, then other times I had melted butter. Cold butter, cold dough, and a preheated oven are all necessary.
• Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until lightly browned then move the rolls to a cooling rack.

Making the Icing

• In a small bowl add the sifted powdered sugar and milk then stir to combine to a drizzling consistency. Add additional milk if the icing is too thick.
• Leave the rolls on the cooling rack and place a piece of parchment or wax paper under the rack. With a fork, drizzle the icing over the rolls.
• These rolls are best eaten the day they are made.

Notes

Crescent Roll baking tips

• When you place the rolls on the baking sheet put the tip of the roll on the bottom, otherwise, during baking, the rolls can unroll a bit
• Use cold butter, you want to see the pieces of butter in the dough
• Don't overmix the dough, it will be loose and shaggy when you turn it out of the bowl
• Butter does melt out of the rolls while baking so it is best to use a rimmed baking sheet. See notes in the instructions.
• You can make the dough and refrigerate overnight, or you can preroll the crescent and place them in the refrigerator overnight and bake the next day
• These rolls are not very big, just bite-sized, if you prefer bigger rolls just cut into 8ths
• Not into cinnamon or just want something, not cinnamon, try adding other spices such as cardamom, pumpkin pie spice, or make it savory with chili powder or rosemary
• You can add flavoring to the icing drizzle, add spices or extracts for added flavors
• You can even make these cottage cheese rolls without a filling and they are just as delicious

Nutrition

Serving: 1 | Calories: 107kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 99mg

Thank you for stopping by the One Hot Oven blog.  Please leave a comment to say Hello or just let me know what you are baking these days, I always love hearing from fellow bakers.

About Jere’

From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California,  my passion for food is never-ending.  Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven sharing both sweet and savory recipes with all my baking friends.

Have any questions or just want to chat about the recipe? Contact me here, and I’ll be happy to help!