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.
This page may contain affiliate links, please see my disclosure for policy details. I earn commissions if you shop through the links on this page.
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 cinnamon 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.
Step 2. In a large bowl add the flour, cottage cheese, and the 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 into one large round of dough.
Step 4. Cut the one round of dough in half and reform 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 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
- 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.
Add to your Pinterest Board for later
Let’s bake some delicious treats!
Cinnamon Crescent Rolls with Cottage Cheese
Equipment
- pizza cutter
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 small cubes 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.
- Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until lightly browned. Some butter will bake out of the rolls, the colder the dough is the better.
- 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
- 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
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!
Rimmed Baking Sheet
Pizza Cutter
Pizza Cutter
Pizza Cutter
Michelle
These are so pretty and yummy! I could lick the glaze right out of the bowl!
Angela
Love your step by step pictures. Crescent rolls are a favorite at my house around the holidays. These are amazing!
Cindy
My kiddos and I made this together! We have been spending a lot more time in the kitchen lately and its so fun. They really enjoyed making this recipe but they enjoyed eating it even more! Thanks for this delish creation, we are adding it to our “make again” list!!
Jere Cassidy
I am glad to hear the kids are in the kitchen. I think that is so important.
Noelle Simpson
Yum! What a great combination, I have never used cottage cheese like this!
Tawnie
I loved that these were made using cottage cheese – SO delicious and simple.
Amanda Wren-Grimwood
I’ve not cooked with cottage cheese before so Definitely have to try this as they look so good.
Kechi
These look so good, you don’t even know how I dread making crescent rolls, and you make them look easy peasy. I hope to make them!
Jere Cassidy
I have made the laminated crescents with a pound of butter many times and wow, what a procedure that is.
Amanda Marie Boyle
Looks so good, and not as hard as I thought they would be.
Jacqueline Meldrum
I would never have thought of using cottage cheese but they look wonderful. Thanks for the step-by-step photos. They make it less daunting.
Jere Cassidy
It is amazing what cottage cheese does for this recipe for flavor and tenderness.
Nart at Cooking with Nart
Yum! I didn’t know cottage cheese is so good in baking. Thanks for sharing!