# Breakfast pastries vs Dessert pastries **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 5, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304 "2004-04-05T04:29:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/1 "2004-04-05T04:29:22Z")
Generally, doughnuts and muffins are considered breakfast foods, while cakes and cookies are dessert items. Are they separated by ingredients or nutritional value, or is it just tradition? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/2 "2004-04-05T05:19:14Z")
Heavens, unless the U.S.A. version of doughnuts is **wildly** different from my (U.K.) idea of them, it has to be just tradition. I’m sure the “nutritional value” of doughnuts and cakes is pretty terrble for both. The **enjoyment value** , on the other hand…!🙂 N.B. I’m steering clear of the “muffins” bit, as that _could_ be different. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/3 "2004-04-05T05:22:23Z")
Then again, if I had some doughnuts for breakfast right now, I might just manage not to mess up the coding so badly. I want doughnuts! ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/4 "2004-04-05T05:38:11Z")
I’ve never known anyone to classify a doughnut as a breakfast item. Where are you from, **Yumblie**? ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/5 "2004-04-05T05:47:01Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I’ve never known anyone to classify a doughnut as a breakfast item. Where are you from, **Yumblie**? Excuse me? Doughnuts are most assuredly breakfast food. Go look at a continental breakfast bar. Doughnuts are a breakfast food. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/6 "2004-04-05T05:55:37Z")
They might be to some people but considering their inclusion surprised both \*\*Celyn \*\* and I, they’re obviously not ubiquitous ---
**Author:** ![so\_da\_ne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@so\_da\_ne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/so_da_ne)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/7 "2004-04-05T06:27:08Z")
Hmmm I’ve never seen doughnuts offered at breakfast either. Most of the people I know eat them as a sweet treat or a snack. ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/8 "2004-04-05T06:57:17Z")
I’m from the USA. Maybe I was being too specific, but from what I’ve seen, many countries seem to have separate breakfast pastries and dessert pastries, whether they’re doughnuts or croissants or danish or what have you. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/9 "2004-04-05T07:13:43Z")
Ah, croissants are breakfast things (another of those nifty Middle Eastern inventions, I believe, strangely enough 🙂 ), and very nice too. Probably nutritionally terrible, given the butter and salt involved, but, well… 🙂 I’m hungry AGAIN!!! I blame **Yumblie** ---
**Author:** ![Kegg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Kegg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kegg)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/10 "2004-04-05T07:18:50Z")
Dounuts are an any time food. Muffins on the other hand (english or american)are breakfast food. What we call muffin would be tea cakes to the English, Oz, Nz. etc We say English muffin for what the English call muffin. * * * Spelling and grammer subject to change with out notice ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/11 "2004-04-05T11:46:26Z")
In the US, doughnuts are widely considered morning food. They are eaten either at breakfast or as a morning snack with coffee. Many doughnut shops (yes, we have shops here that sell nothing but doughnuts!) don’t even stay open in the afternoon (having been open to customers since four or five, and busy making doughnuts for two or three hours before that). They are ubiquitous items on continental breakfast buffets and any at virtually bussiness meeting held before 10:45 am. My mother is from the UK (I was born in Edinburgh) and couldn’t imagine anyone putting something like that in their mouth first thing in the morning. That was until my sister and I (having been corrupted by our American father) finally got her to try one. After that , we used to have doughnuts for breakfast on a semi-regular basis. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a doughnut, or anything called by that name, in the UK. What do you folks think of when you hear “doughnut”? ---
**Author:** ![quothz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/da6949/32.png) [@quothz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quothz)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/12 "2004-04-05T12:23:28Z")
> [@Yumblie](#): > > Generally, doughnuts and muffins are considered breakfast foods, while cakes and cookies are dessert items. Are they separated by ingredients or nutritional value, or is it just tradition? Very broadly speaking, breakfast pastries are quicker to prepare. Muffins, pancakes, waffles, scones, and coffee cakes are all made with quick breads, which can be slapped together in very little time. Doughnuts are very fast to make, as are bagels, croissants, and many other traditional breakfasty foods. Cookies are a sticky spot. I gather that English biscuits are common breakfast fare, but in the U.S. cookies are traditionally a snack food. I dunno why. Dessert cakes never made it into the breakfast canon, I think because of the trouble of decoration, but that’s a WAG. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-pastries-vs-dessert-pastries/238304/13 "2004-04-05T13:34:17Z")
I always figured that if it can be found in a gas station for 65 cents, it’s a breakfast pastry… all other pastries are dessert pastries… no real nutritional difference. BTW donuts have fewer calories than bagels, look at Dunkin’ Donuts website and compare all their donuts to all their bagels (before the cream cheese, too!). So, go ahead, have a chocolate frosted creme filled donut and proudly say to everyone that you’re on a diet.