How are Sticky Buns and Cinnamon Rolls different from each other?
When you see sticky buns and cinnamon rolls on the breakfast table, you really don’t see one apart from the other. But do you ever wonder what’s the difference between the gooey buns and the glossy rolls? So, let’s solve that doubt once and for all.
Origins of Sticky Buns and Cinnamon Rolls
Sticky buns, also called honey bun, caramel bun, or Schnecken in German, are of German origin and were introduced to America by the Pennsylvania Dutch settlers. It’s a sweet breakfast bread (but you can also eat it as a dessert) filled with brown sugar, sometimes cinnamon, and nuts.
Cinnamon Rolls, also called a cinnamon bun, cinnamon Danish, or cinnamon swirl, is believed to have originated in Sweden, or around the Scandinavian region, and then traveled to North America. The sweet baked confection is made with a thick filling of cinnamon, sugar, and butter and finished with a sugary glaze.
The recipe
While the basic ingredients of sticky buns and cinnamon rolls are the same, the process varies by a few steps.
To make sticky buns, you have to line the baking pan/sheet/tray with a caramel glaze, honey, and/or sugar and butter. A lot of people also add maple syrup or corn syrup. Depending on what kind of sweetener you like, you can give your own twist. Usually, toasted nuts are added to the glaze at this stage. People usually use pecans, but these buns can also be made with other nuts like almonds, walnuts, or even pistachios. Then the doughs are added to the tray and baked to a golden brown. Once done, you have to flip the buns, or invert the tray, so the gooey bottom becomes the top.
Cinnamon rolls, on the other hand, are made into doughs and directly baked on a baking sheet/tray. There’s no glaze used for baking these rolls. However, once the rolls are golden and done, a glaze made with cream cheese and sugar is drizzled over it and cooled. This glaze adds most of the sweetness to the roll. Unlike sticky buns, cinnamon rolls traditionally don’t contain nuts. But people do experiment often with sliced almonds or crushed pecans as garnish.
Flavors and Textures
Because cinnamon rolls are made with, well, cinnamon and sugar, among other delicious ingredients, their aroma is very spicy and distinctive. Sticky buns, on the other side, have a very smoky, caramelly aroma, which varies based on the nuts used in the bun.
As far as the taste is concerned, sticky buns will give you a very nutty, toffee-like taste, while cinnamon rolls feel sugary on the palate. These breads vary texture-wise as well. Because sticky buns have a syrupy base, it feels denser to touch, while cinnamon rolls are fluffy and spongy with a slightly sticky topping.
Despite their technical differences, the basic prepping of sticky buns and cinnamon rolls are exactly the same.
Where both sticky buns and cinnamon rolls become similar is the use of base ingredients. Since they are technically bread, both of them use self-rising flour, leavening agents, yeast, sugar, butter, all of which are kneaded into a bouncy dough, as you would do for any bread. Then they are dusted with their sugar etc., flattened out with a rolling pin, and then rolled like a log. Then the log is cut into slices, so each of them looks like a pinwheel. The pinwheel slices are then baked into golden brown rolls.
Whether its sticky buns or cinnamon rolls, the sweet and spicy aroma of sugar and cinnamon, rolled into sugary bread, is simply divine! Because, both these sweetbreads make for a delicious breakfast treat!