Roll

In the French language, the use of sugar traces the boundary between bread baking and pastry making. In English, we don’t clearly make this distinction. The same could be said for fat and eggs. It is therefore difficult to know how to classify all these small breads or griddlecakes, such as rolls, buns, scones, muffins and crumpets. Translation of French generic terms such as cake or gâteau; pancake or crêpe; cupcake or quatre-quart; bread or pain; loaf or miche lead to dead ends and uncertainties. To reject pancakes or other small breads on the pretext that they contain ingredients other than what the French call “bread” would make about as much sense as to put pizza aside, because it is topped with tomato sauce cheese and oregano. Sugar and fat are not, therefore, considered as a boundary in this dictionary.

Rolls enter into the category of side dish, and can be compared to the way we eat bread in Europe. They are served with lunch or dinner, and can be eaten with just about any food. Rolls are made with leaven, and are also known under the name dinner rolls. They are served at meals, in the same way as white sliced bread. They are more often eaten under the name hard roll or hero roll, and used to make hot or cold sandwiches.

In this family of sandwich breads, we can quite naturally place hamburger buns -- a hamburger is a sandwich made with ground pork or beef, dressed with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions and other condiments – and hotdog buns. Americans also eat buns for breakfast, so you find cranberry, hazelnut and cinnamon buns. There is a multitude of flavor combinations, most of which are more or less fatty and sugary.