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German Coffee Bread or Cinnamon Bread

A yeast bread made with sweet milk, lard, sugar, raisins, and spices, topped with brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

German Coffee Bread or Cinnamon Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. In the evening, prepare a sponge with sweet milk, flour, and yeast.

Make and rise the dough

  1. In the morning, add lard, sugar, eggs, nutmeg, salt, raisins, and enough flour to form a stiff dough.

  2. Knead the dough vigorously for 15 minutes and let it rise until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough to 1 inch thick and place it in long pans.

  2. Brush the top with egg white or sweet cream, then sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon, and dot with butter.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  4. If the top browns too much, cover with white paper.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Builds the dough structure that holds the bread's shape and crumb.
Yeast
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that leavens the dough so it rises light.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the bread soft.
Eggs
Add richness and structure, helping the dough bind and set in the oven.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough vigorously for 15 minutes. Vigorous kneading develops gluten, giving the stiff dough the strength to trap gas from the yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, sugar, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, butter):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, sugar, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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