My nickname from my Omi (grandmother) in Germany when I was little was “Schneckennudel”, which is a compound word (snail + noodle) which means, in essence, Cinnamon Roll. Not getting into the technicalities, but they are more like a Pain aux Raisin in Germany, but still. Ever since then, I think of my Omi when I make somethng like these for breakfast.
I drizzled honey over these swirls when I took them out of the oven, but maple syrup woould also be pretty great.
Random Story: Back in the day, when I lived in Seattle, Ben had a colleague from Iran (via Canada). When he found out that I was German, the very first thing that he said was “Oh, she must make great quiche!” This confused the heck out of me at the time because apparently Germans are great quiche bakers and I didn’t even know it. Turns out that I have no idea where he got this perception, but nevertheless to this day, I think of him whenever I make a quiche.
This pan-sized cinnamon roll is just the thing for Easter breakfast. Instead of making individual cinnamon buns, I wrapped the whole thing into one big one, filing the entire pan. Quite ingenious, actually. We then ended up slicing it just like you would cut a pie, but you could also take it out of the pan, and let people pull off a strip. Either way, a nice presentation and really quite simple to make.
Every year at Easter Time, I make some hot cross buns. It’s pretty traditional, and it’s a Good Friday tradition in the UK. Every year I get a little bored with the recipe as well. So this year, I decided to mix it up and instead of using raisins, cranberries, currants or (as I did last year) dried apricots, I decided to use chocolate covered dried cherries. They we’re a bit big so I did chopped them a little. If you don’t have chocolate covered cherries in particular, I suppose Raisinets would work as well. Or if you like the cherry-chocolate combo, then mini-chocolate chips and some dried cherries. Pleased with the result.
I recently purchased the Huckleberry cookbook (yes, I am a cookbook junkie) and while I rarely make recipes in their entirety without modifications, I am trying out some of the recipes for the first time. Up first from Huckleberry was this Maple Bacon Biscuit recipe. It happens to also be on the theme of maple syrup (see previous post) and … well, bacon is bacon, and bacon is good. While I these were spectacular straight out of the oven (with a bit of butter) and I m sure that they would also pair well with soup or bisque, I decided to make an egg and bacon breakfast sandwich which was fantastic.