Pets de sœur, sometimes euphemistically translated as nun's pastries or brown sugar rolls, are French-Canadian pastries filled with butter and brown sugar which are rolled, sliced and then baked. Although they are filled with cinnamon and butter, like cinnamon rolls or buns, they are made with pastry rather than yeast. They are often served during the Christmas season. A variation uses molasses instead of brown sugar, or caramel sauce or maple syrup can also be substituted. A tart can also be made with pets de sœurs. Pet de sœur are sometimes confused with a different pastry: pets-de-nonne or "Nun's puffs".
Historical note
A note posted at a gathering of the Grey Nuns in St. Boniface, Manitoba, for the commemoration of the 175 anniversary of their arrival in the West told the following: "The French 'slang' name given to 'cinnamon rolls' dates back to the early years of the Red River Settlement. The people lived poorly, and the sisters were not any better off than the settlers. That is what I heard from a Grey Nun who lived at the turn of the century, and who had heard about or even experienced herself some of the hardship our founding sisters underwent. The story goes something like this: 'In those days the sisters lived in the same building in the schools, and in the hospitals. After school some of the students would stop by at the kitchen and the sister-cook would give them a piece of bread with jam, a cookie or just a cold pancake. Some went more often than others so the ‘non-goers’ who were too shy to go, started to tease the regular clients saying ‘ha,ha, sisters pet.’ In French we say ‘ le pette de la soeur’ the sisters favorite, in Quebec we say 'le chouchou du professeur'. As long as we had sisters in charge of cooking at our institutions, we always had people come by to chat, but also to receive food for their family. This brings me to believe that ‘pette de soeur’ has no connotation whatsoever to what some people might believe today."
