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Dessert

May Friedl

Nut rolls are small rolls filled with walnuts, made from a yeast dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,516 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

May Friedl

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Raise one yeast cake in two tablespoons of cream and one teaspoon of sugar.

  2. Cream one-half pound of butter with four yolks of eggs.

  3. Add the raised yeast, a pinch of salt, and one-half a pound of flour. Mix well and roll out real thin.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the whites of three eggs stiff. Add one heaping tablespoon sugar.

  2. Add three-fourths pound walnuts chopped real fine or ground.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut into small squares.

  2. Place a little filling in each square and form into small rolls.

  3. Let raise about one-half hour.

  4. Bake about twenty minutes.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, making the dough flaky and soft after baking.
Yeast cake
Produces gas that makes the dough rise, giving the rolls a light texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the butter, adding tenderness to the dough.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that holds the dough and rolls together.
Beaten egg whites
Add airy lightness to the filling, helping it stay soft when baked.
Walnuts (in the method)
Provide the nutty filling and added fat for flavor and texture.

The step that matters

Let raise about one-half hour. The shaped rolls need enough time for the yeast to produce gas and puff the dough. Underproofed rolls stay dense, while overproofed ones may collapse in the oven.

“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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