Bread Rolls

Sometimes we just don't have time for breakfast. I just love Kaiser rolls. Often, if not eaten right away Kaiser rolls start getting hard. When that happens just slice them in half, butter each side and put them into a hot skillet until golden.

For a real treat spread your favorite jelly, jam, or preserves on your Kaiser. This beats the hell out of toast. Finally, and I hope my doctor isn't reading this, add a smear of cream cheese before the jelly.

Whenever my family went on vacation to Wisconsin my dad would get up very early and go into town for fresh bread rolls that had a crisp crust, was very soft on the inside, had a crease down the center like a baby's butt, and we called shinkin rolls. They are more commonly known as split rolls.I just can't find a recipe for the Wisconsin type. They look like this:

Shinkin Roll

I came across a recipe for a French split roll called a Pistolet, but I'm not sure that this is it. If anyone knows what the Wisconsin version is and how to make it, drop me a comment and a recipe if you have it.

In my early years (over 30 years ago) I had many jobs working in restaurants, mostly as a breakfast grill man. Two of the most requested quick snacks to go with coffee was the butter toasted Kaiser roll and the the butter toasted caramel pecan roll. The butter toasted caramel pecan roll was often dunked in coffee to soften it and add the coffee flavor. The butter only enhanced the caramel flavor. When I first saw this I was horrified at the thought of dunking this nut crusted roll in my coffee. Finally a customer suggested that I try it. Having no reference to compare it to, I was amazed at how really good it tasted. The trick was to dunk just long enough to absorb some coffee, but not long enough to have the pecans fall off in the coffee. Today I can tell you that it tasted like a caramel latte found at many expensive coffee shops. It just wasn't nearly as sweet as it is today. Why didn't I jump on that coffee and caramel idea? If you snooze you loose.