Quick Ensaymadas (Filipino Sweet Rolls)

I grew up in your standard Midwestern household. When we'd go out to eat, the most exotic we'd get would be Mexican or Chinese. When I got together with my husband, a whole new culinary world opened up to me. His parents are from Manila and his mom is an excellent cook, so I was introduced to lots of delicious new dishes from the Philippines. One treat in particular, ensaymada, is a sweet roll with butter, cheese and sugar. Until recently I had only had pre-packaged ensaymada from Goldilocks Bakery.

Michael's parents usually had a stash in their freezer from relatives who visited from California. In my attempts to learn how to cook some traditional Filipino dishes, I recently bought a cookbook of Filipino cuisine. The other night I realized I had all (four) of the ingredients needed for Quick Ensaymada, so I thought I'd try it. So glad I did. This tastes pretty much like the real thing. Maybe even better, as it's smaller and likely quite a bit better for us (or less bad, depending on your outlook).

Since we generally start with frozen ensaymada, we tend to microwave ours before eating, so the cheese is pretty melted. According to this recipe, that's not how you'd normally eat it.

Source: Philippine Recipes Made Easy by Violeta A. Noriega

Hawaiian sweet rolls
Butter or margarine
Sugar
Shredded cheddar cheese

Butter your roll, dredge in sugar and top with cheese. (I then microwaved for 11 seconds). Enjoy. Because seriously, you will.