It’s a true Canadian Classic – but few outside the Lakehead region have ever heard of it. I refer, of course, to the legendary Persian Roll. Its history is as intriguing as its recipe. And above all, it’s the best Cinnamon Roll I’ve ever tasted…
We’ve all heard of the Beavertail pastry ‘plank’ from Ottawa, the Butter Tart, the Nanaimo Bar and the Jam Jam. Every one an All-Canadian classic. But I’ve just stumbled across another unique Canadian culinary treasure that belongs right up there with them, in the Pantheon of Godly Treats…
A little history…
‘This fried and frosted delicacy hails from Thunder Bay in northern Ontario,” atlasobscura.com tells us. “And it’s supposedly ‘named’ after John J. Pershing, an American general in World War I. This, of course, is if you were to [mis]pronounce his name ‘Persian’. Pershing is not Persian, either. He’s from Missouri.”
“According to store lore, General Pershing visited Bennett’s Bakery (a three-and-a-half hour jaunt from the naval base in Duluth, Minnesota) sometime after the war. To pay tribute to their famous guest, founder Arthur Bennett invented and named the pastry in Pershing’s honour in the 1940s.”
The Persian Roll
It’s sometimes called a ‘cinnamon bun-turned-doughnut’. But that’s a deceptively simple description…
This luxe ‘roll’ is a classic spiral of sweet, yeast-raised dough filled with a simple brown sugar-and-cinnamon mixture and topped with – get your brain ready to ‘picture’ the flavour – a rich raspberry butter cream.
It’s an amazing pairing you don’t find anywhere else in culinary nature… Raspberries and cinnamon! You’ll want to try it in other raspberry applications you love…
The dough
It’s reminiscent of a standard yeast-raised doughnut formula, but with critical differences. The first is sugar. You add 1/4 cup / 60 g of it to the dough to make it sweet. The next is milk. No plain water for this dough! Everything about it is upgraded. And the third is… an egg. Not quite Brioche or Challa bread, but the egg makes it silkier and stretchier than plain bread dough.
The topping
… Is really just a standard butter cream. But recipe contributor Sabrina notes a couple of twists. She insists you use butter, not shortening, to produce an authentic result. And, above all else, you must use fresh raspberries to achieve the full flavour of the treat.
My take
To me, some of Sabrina’s ingredient demands seem a little extreme…
I would have no problem using frozen raspberries in place of fresh. I’ve shared my (and the experts’) reasons for that choice in previous posts about the advantages of frozen fruits and veggies.
Sab also calls for a lot of butter. If you usually use shortening in your frosting, go ahead and do so in this dish. And feel free to use vegetable or Canola oil in the dough. The one place where you really should use butter – for the flavour – is in the filling…
~ Maggie J.