Skip to main content
Dessert

Russian Sweet Bread

A yeast‑leavened sweet bread made with yolks, butter, honey, milk, sugar, lemon and orange peel.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Russian Sweet Bread

Timeabout 1 hour

Ingredients

Directions

Make the starter

  1. Mix yeast with 1 teaspoon sugar, 2‑3 tablespoons tepid milk, and 2‑3 tablespoons flour to form a starter. Mix well, cover, and leave in a warm spot.

  2. In a large bowl, pour scalded milk over 3‑4 tablespoons flour, mixing well. Cover with a cloth and let cool.

  3. When the mixture is only a little warm, add the risen starter. Mix well, sprinkle some flour on top, cover, and leave again in a warm spot until well risen.

Make the dough

  1. Beat yolks with sugar in a bowl placed in a bowl of hot water. When the sugar melts and the mixture is warm, pour it a little at a time over the starter, adding a little flour, salt, vanilla, lemon peel, and orange peel.

  2. Mix everything very well to make a homogeneous paste. Sprinkle some flour on top, cover, and let rise again in a warm place.

  3. Knead the dough, adding tepid melted butter, tepid oil, and tepid honey. Keep kneading until the dough easily comes off your hands. Cover and let rise until it triples in bulk.

Bake and serve

  1. Place a piece of dough in a greased pan sprinkled with bread crumbs. Fill only one‑third of the pan with dough. Cover and leave in a warm spot until it almost fills the whole pan.

  2. Wash the surface of the dough with an egg‑water mixture and bake in the oven, first at slow heat until it rises some more, then increase the heat to medium. Bake for about 1 hour. Test with a cake tester.

  3. When done, remove from the pan, place on a cloth, and let cool.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1102Calories
29 gProtein
40 gFat
157 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Honey1 tbsp (21g)64
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten network that traps gas and gives the bread its structure.
Yolks
Add richness and fat, softening the crumb and aiding a tender texture.
Yeast
Produces gas through fermentation, making the dough rise.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
Confectioner's sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the dough brown during baking.
Milk
Provides moisture and proteins that add softness and browning.

The step that matters

Kneading in the melted butter, oil and honey. Fat coats gluten strands and can weaken dough if added too quickly or too warm, so the additions should be tepid and kneaded in until the dough is smooth and elastic before rising.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, honey, milk, sugar, orange, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, honey, milk, sugar, orange, vanilla. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipes