If you’re looking for a butter roll recipe, you’ve come to the right place! These old-fashioned rolls are so good!
Have y’all ever heard of Butter Rolls?
From what I’ve been able to find online, these little bites of pastry heaven are not all that well known. I lucked out and came across these by mistake on allrecipes.com and I’ve been hanging on to the recipe for months, waiting for the perfect time to whip these up.
Ugh. I hate when I do that. All this time I’ve had the recipe and not made it was just a waste. I wasn’t fully living my life without eating butter rolls at least once. Now, thankfully, my life is complete. I can die happy. Preferably with one of these rolls in my face.
These rolls are less cinnamon roll and more pie crust. There is an abundance of butter involved, a good deal of sugar, and a sprinkling of cinnamon (you could totally up the cinnamon here). The pastry dough gets rolled up and cut to form a beautiful spiral, gently placed in a pan, and then doused in a sweet milk sauce. As the rolls bake, the milk sauce thickens up a bit into a fabulous custard.
I mean, I don’t know how any could resist these little rolls!
I can totally picture an old Southern grandma making these rolls for her family. And, since it’s my goal in life to be an old Southern grandma in the kitchen, these rolls made me happy.
I’m a huge fan of the dough. It’s very similar to a pie crust, but baking it in the sweet milk sauce softens it up a bit. All in all, this butter roll recipe is one that I plan on keeping and passing down to my kids.
Butter Rolls
Ingredients
For the rolls:
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, cold 2 sticks
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 3/4 cup butter, softened 1 1/2 sticks
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon more as desired
For the milk sauce:
- 2 cups milk
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Use a pastry cutter to cut in the butter.
- When you have coarse crumbs, add the 1/2 cup of water and stir. Use your hands to press the dough together.
- Place dough in fridge for 10 minutes to make it a bit easier to work with.
- Generously sprinkle your workspace with flour. Roll the dough out into a 12x10 rectangle.
- Spread the softened butter evenly over the pastry. Sprinkle with the 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon.
- Roll up the dough, jelly roll style. Cut into 12 even slices.
- Place in the prepared baking dish.
- In a small saucepan, heat the milk and remaining sugar just until it begins to boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
- Pour all of this mixture over the rolls.
- Bake until browned, about 30-40 minutes.
Nutrition Information:
Post updated with new video and images 4/6/17.
BEVERLY COLEMAN-BLAND says
My granny and her sister, my great aunt, used to make these often. I finally got the recipe, wrote it down as my granny told me ‘a pinch of this and a pinch of that’ (she made it from memory, so could not tell me measurements). I was able to make a version of it from that information, but somehow lost the recipe. Takes me back down memory lane. They are both gone now, so I will have to try these in memory of them. I bet they are delicious!
Karly says
Oh, I hope these are nearly as good as your Granny’s. Nothing quite lives up to memories of grandma’s cooking, but I hope these are close. 🙂
Amy says
My nana made these years ago ?? She rolled hers differently though. She used a small saucer to cut circles, like large biscuits, and then rolled them to look like cigars.
Have you had any luck making the rolls up the day before and then adding the milk sauce when you’re ready to bake?
Karly says
I’ve not tried making them in advance but I can’t see any reason it wouldn’t work fine.
Peggy Baker says
Looks like the ones momma used to make except she had chocolate sauce yum yum. I am going to make them
Debra Lucius says
My Grandmother made these for us when my sister, cousins and I were little. She also added powdered cocoa on occasion to make chocolate butter rolls. My mouth is watering just remembering…..I’ve got to go make some!!!
Karly says
Hope you enjoy!