Zwiebach: Grandma's Specialty (Final)

When I was little, my grandma always cooked for my family and I whenever we would visit her. Either we would visit as a family or one of us kids visited her by ourselves. My grandma was an amazing cook. One thing she would always cook was zwiebach. Zwiebach are little rolls that pull apart into two separate pieces, the name even means "two bread". They are sweeter and a little denser than regular rolls. These rolls are made with lots of fat, like butter, lard, margarine, sometimes coconut oil, or any other form of good grease. In a post entitled, "Christina's Bookshelf", she talks about etiquette involved with zwiebach, she says, "Proper etiquette states that zwiebach must not be spread with butter, for fear of insulting the hostess by insinuating that she didn't use enough butter when making her zwiebach.". I think that even if the cook used enough butter, a little more spread on top would not hurt anything. I love these rolls and request them whenever I know we are going to see Grandma. They are good plain or with butter, they are good with jelly and jam. Whatever flavor of topping you can think of probably will be good on zwiebach. You can even make little sandwiches with meat and cheese on them.
Zwiebach is a type of bread that was originally cooked by Mennonites, which are a type of Christian group that began in the 16th century, and is really popular and centers around the mid west, especially in Kansas. They were traditionally served on festive occasions like weddings and Sunday afternoon meals called faspas. They are even served at funerals, which sounds better and more thoughtful than the regular store bought rolls. Here, a woman named Ellen tells of how she learned to cook zwiebach and even has a recipe for it. I do not know how easy it is to make these right since I have never tried to make them myself, but my mom always said grandma's are the best. My mom did make good ones also, but grandma's really are better. I suppose it is because she has way more experience and I am sure she has perfected the art of zwiebach baking.

Zwiebach is something my whole family loves, even the extended members. I might be right in claiming it as a "staple" food in my family. They have been around for as long as I can remember and since most of my family are German, I have always believed zwiebach to be a German thing, but I have found out there are Russian types as well. I have also found a variety of recipes for zwiebach and each one was a little different. Some have eggs, some have a cinnamon roll option which I would love to try and I am sure it would be amazing. I do not know what all is in my grandma's recipe, but I would sure like to try some of these others and compare them, though I am sure my grandma's zwiebach would blow them out of the water (I suppose that's sort of a biased opinion).
I assume not everybody has heard of zwiebach before. It was surprisingly hard to find information on them or pictures of them on the Internet. If you are somebody who likes rolls, you should definitely check these out, they smell great when they are cooking and they taste delicious (best rolls out there in my opinion). If you pick a recipe and the rolls turn out terrible, do not blame me or give up, just pick a different one and try again. I believe the recipe I have provided a link for would be a good one to start with, or if you have a Mennonite grandmother or know any Mennonites, then you would probably be better off having them cook some for you as they probably have plenty experience.