How to Form Yeast Dough into Dinner Buns, Cinnamon Buns, and Crescent Rolls

Learn how to form yeast dough into different kinds of buns and bread braids.

Yesterday I shared my Mom’s homemade dough recipe.  {You can find it HERE.}  I gave you a quick peek of the whole process, but the post already was so long, I didn’t go into a lot of detail.  For those of you who are experienced bun makers, this will be old hat to you.  But, if you’re like me when I first started making buns, I didn’t have a clue how to do all those fun braids and twists.  Thankfully, I found some good resources, and this is what I learned from them.

How to Form Homemade Yeast Dough into Crescent Rolls, Cinnamon Rolls, & Dinner Rolls

To make Homemade Crescent Rolls:

Roll out 1/6 of the dough to form a circle about 12 inches in circumference.  Cut into 12 triangle shaped wedges.  Starting at the thick end, roll up. Tuck the pointed end in tightly to the rest of the bun.

To make Cinnamon Bread Braid:

Roll 1/6 of the dough into a rectangle about 12 x 15 inches.  Spread butter on the middle 1/3 of it and sprinkle over brown sugar and cinnamon.  Cut 12 slits on each side, a little over 1 inch thick.

Starting at the top, criss-cross from side to side each strip of dough and tuck the end in at the bottom.

{Once baked and cooled, I drizzled some vanilla icing over it.}

How to make Mini Cinnamon Buns:

Roll 1/6 of the dough into a rectangle 24 inches long by 5 inches high.  Spread over softened butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

Roll up so you have one long skinny “log”.  Cut 24 1 inch slices.

For the caramel roll sauce, place in a saucepan the following ingredients:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 Tblsp. milk

Bring to a boil and pour into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan.

Place the dough rounds on top of the sauce.

For the rest of the process of making homemade dinner rolls, refer to all the directions in this overnight yeast bun recipe.

Happy Baking!!