Breakfast Sweet Rolls

Photo: flickr user bcmom

Preparation

Breakfast in America means many things to many people.

From the relatively Spartan toast and jam, to a soul-warming plate of sausage gravy served up with buttermilk biscuits, to an elegant basket of mixed-berry muffins with a steaming pot of coffee, everyone has a favorite way to start the day. Whatever people's allegiances may be, however, most would agree that no breakfast is complete without bread.

Breakfast breads appeal to many moods and have a place in an array of settings. A bran muffin, paired with a cappuccino, provides sustenance on a busy day. An early morning stack of fresh berry pancakes and a fruit smoothie shared with your best friend at a bustling restaurant are delightful and restorative.

A homemade iced cinnamon roll and coffee are a bit of heaven when part of the weekend breakfast-in-bed ritual. And on no day of the year are more breakfasts in bed served than Mother's Day.

A well-made sweet roll is a great accomplishment for the home baker. Sweet rolls are technically considered coffee cakes, as they typically use the same yeast dough as a coffee cake.

Cinnamon is a key ingredient in sweet rolls; in fact, cinnamon and sticky buns have their origin in the schnecken ('snails'), Germany's rolled and filled sweet rolls. You will often see a reference to Philadelphia sticky buns; the cinnamon roll was a fixture in restaurants in that city during the 19 th century. The word 'bun' comes from the Old French bugne, or 'swelling,' which these single-serving breads do as they rise in the oven.

Here are two recipes: a quick sweet roll that is made with baking powder and enriched with cottage cheese, and a deluxe yeasted sweet roll that gets its crunch from macadamia nuts.

Sweet rolls have crossover appeal: One look, much less one bite, will bring out the child in anyone. Even Mom.