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London Hot-cross Buns

A sweet yeast dough baked into buns with a cross, brushed with beaten egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

London Hot-cross Buns

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Combine three cups of milk, one cup of yeast (or one cake of compressed yeast dissolved in a cup of tepid water) and enough flour to make a thick batter; set as a sponge overnight.

Make the dough

  1. In the morning add half a cup of melted butter, one cup of sugar, half a nutmeg grated, one saltspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of soda, and enough flour to roll out like a biscuit.

  2. Knead well and let rise for five hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough to half an inch thick; cut into round cakes and lay in rows in a buttered baking pan; let the cakes stand half an hour, or until light.

  2. Bake in the oven, having first made a deep cross on each with a knife.

  3. Bake until light brown and brush with beaten egg white mixed with powdered sugar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

767Calories
21 gProtein
22 gFat
121 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

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

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

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

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

  2. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sponge and dough, adding moisture and richness to the crumb.
Yeast
Ferments the sponge and dough, producing gas that makes the buns rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a richer flavor and softer texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and feeds the yeast, and helps the crust brown in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to add some extra lift and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Let the shaped buns stand until light. Yeast needs time to produce gas before baking. Baking too early leaves the buns dense, because the structure has not yet expanded and set in the oven.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, 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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