Grandma's Butterhorns Recipe - Pinch of Yum
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Grandma’s Butterhorns

6 reviews / 4 average

Why are these little bite-sized nuggets of rolled, frosted, sweet bread called butterhorns?

Good question.

But in belated honor of Mother’s Day, I am sharing a recipe from Grandma R.

My Grandma R – previously mentioned for her apple crisp – has been making these little appetizer/dessert/snack bites for as long as I can remember.

Butterhorn sweet rolls topped with a vanilla glaze on a glass dish.

Any season, any time of day, any part of the meal… they just work.  Somehow, it seems to always be an appropriate time to eat sweet bread with frosting.

How did she ever came up with the idea for these incredibly sweet, soft, golden, buttery and overall cozy treats?  I don’t know.

But would you expect anything less from my sweet Grandma R?

Elderly woman smiling at the camera.
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Butterhorns

Grandma’s Butterhorns


Description

These butterhorns are the ones my Grandma makes for every holiday and special occasion. They’re cute little sweet rolls topped with a vanilla glaze.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cups flour
  • 12 oz. cottage cheese
  • 2 sticks butter/margarine
  • dash of salt
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tbs. butter/margarine
  • 2 tbs. milk
  • 1 tsp. almond flavoring

Instructions

  1. Beat cottage cheese and butter together. Add in flour and salt. Mix together and refrigerate overnight.
  2. Divide dough into 4 parts. Roll out each part like pie dough, and cut into 12 pie shaped wedges. Roll big end to little end.
  3. Bake on greased cookie sheet and 350 for 30 minutes. Cool.
  4. Mix frosting ingredients together (sugar through almond flavoring) and spread on cooled crescents.
  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: butterhorns, sweet butterhorns, easy butterhorns

I’d like to say I got to take some home from our Mother’s Day celebration, but they were obviously gone in a flash.

I did, however, get the (self appointed) honor of scraping up the frosting drips from the serving plate.  And I will take what I can get!

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26 Comments

  1. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I make a similar savory dough which is 2 cups of cottage cheese, 2 cups of flour and 2 sticks of butter. Mix it in the food processor. Divide onto r balls, refrigerate for at least two hours. Roll it out in a round, spread with filling, cut into wedges and rolleach wedge into a horn. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds or parmesan cheese and bake until golden. I usr sprnach and feta filling, minced mushrooms with a pinch of poultry seasoning sauteed in putter, and leftover corned beef with grayed swiss and a little sauerkraut. I’m going to try your Grandmother’s version.

  2. Pinch of Yum Logo

    What kind of flour did you use I mean all purpose or self rising ? I would love to try this recipe .

  3. Pinch of Yum Logo

    These look scrumptious and my grandma used to make something similar I wonder if these will finally bring me home to that memory I miss so much as a child growing up! =) I love all of your recipes and have shared you on my facebook quite a bit hehe well I wonder how well these freeze? P.S. I plan on making these to surprise the mother in-law with a baked treat on Easter!

  4. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Do you use “creamed” cottage cheese or “dry” cottage, large curd or small. Never knew there were so many to choose from. Thanks, can’t wait to make these.

  5. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Whoa! These were delicious. The pastry was so flaky and similar texture of frozen toaster strudels. I love that they are completely customizable to make a variety of flavors (lemon, vanilla, strawberry, all kinds of fillings too) I like to add a little orange extract mixed in with the almond. I think next I will try Nutella in the middle. I will be making these again and again! Thank you

  6. Pinch of Yum Logo

    These aren’t butterhorns. They show up all over the Internet as if they’re legit. They may be tasty but they’re not butterhorns and are not traditional….maybe as a steal in your family they’re traditional and what you’re used to but they’re not fluffy buttery pastry with jam and/ or nuts and icing, maybe a filling. They’re Pillsbury crescent rolls doctored and given a stolen name. Shame on you. Create your own recipes. Don’t steal the traditional ones and try to make them your own.

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Hi, Jackie! In our family, grandma makes these and always calls them butterhorns. Whether or not that’s what butterhorns “truly” are, this is how we know them. There was no use of Pillsbury in the making of this recipe – in fact the ones pictured were made from scratch by grandma herself! Sorry if you feel that this post was misleading in some way as that was not our intent.

      1. Pinch of Yum Logo

        Absolutely right on about your grandmother’s Butterhorns. My mother made these Butterhorns. The recipe is nearly identical to yours except we leave out the salt and use vanilla extract instead of almond. They are made from scratch and wonderful!

        1. Pinch of Yum Logo

          It is obvious from the photo these are rolled similarly to a crescent roll and if that’s not what is desired people can move on to another recipe. I’ve seen many recipes with similarly rolled pastry called Butterhorns. There are a lot of varying recipes called Butterhorns some which use yeast and are round and some look like this. Coincidentally I just pulled recipe from my own 90 year old mother’s cook book called “Butterhorns” which also uses cottage cheese and also instructs to roll out and cut into wedges, starting at the wide end, so wil look like this. So this is not a “new” thing to call these Butterhorns and in fact it does look more like a horn than round pastry does. Now, I’d like to try these, but I know I also would like to try making a round shaped Butterhorn with yeast so I’ll also search for a recipe like that as well. Thank you for your recipe!

    2. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Wow–you are a miserable person. If you don’t like her recipe, don’t try it. INStead you hurl accusations. YOU must have a sad life.

    3. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Wow, how hateful you are Jackie. You should search for recipes if your gonna be that way.

    4. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Came across this recipe-pretty much like my grandma’s. So this Jackie person has no clue. My grandma passed away in 1971, she had the recipe from her mum. Kind of before Pillsbury. Besides butterhorns do not have jam or other nuts in them. Shame on her.

  7. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I was SO thrilled to find this recipe (again)! Used to make these years ago and then lost the recipe (so simple, with just the 3 -4 ingred.)! But I needed a reminder on the amts. to use. Now here I am a native Canadian and wondering just how much are two “sticks” of butter?! Guess I’d best text my daughter who married an American and lives now in Colorado. And I too married an American from Minnesota…but now he is a Canadian through and through and loves living here with us in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Come visit sometime and we’ll show you around after feasting on a few butterhorn treats!

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Butter/marg is sold in 1 lb packs of 4 sticks, each wrapped in paper marked with tbsp and cup measures for accurate cutting, 1 stick = 8 tbsp or 1/2 cup. Very useful packaging , really! I found a version of this in an old church cookbook, but with no salt, suggested maple or vanilla glaze instead of almond.

  8. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Butterhorns! Thanks for the memory! My grandma, also from Minnesota, made butterhorns and they were a special treat. Soft, buttery, and that icing was delicious. I think she put chopped nuts on top which she ground with one of those hand cranked nut keeper tools. She always packed butterhorns in tins. Only in the Midwest!

  9. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I notice there is no leavening agent like yeast. What makes these rise – or do they?

  10. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Hello we love these special treats. However instead of eating all of them right after they come out of the oven lol. Can the dough be frozen if so for how long. Thanks Cindy

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Hi Cindy! Great question. We’re not entirely sure if the dough can be frozen. We think it’d probably be best to freeze any extra butterhorns after baking.

  11. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Years ago (60’s) my mother would make something she called orange butter horns. I remember them using cream cheese and there was grated Orange in the frosting. I’m betting I could replicate that recipe using this as a guide.

  12. Pinch of Yum Logo

    It looks yummy. My grandmother also often makes it for me. And now I really want to follow your instruction and make it for my grandmother

  13. Pinch of Yum Logo

    This is exactly how I remember butterhorns tasting as a kid. Great Recipe. My mom asked that I make them again for Christmas this year. I’ve made this recipe three times now. The first time I didn’t have cottage cheese and made my own with lemon juice and milk and it still turned out wonderfully. Thanks so much for posti