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Spanish Buns

A yeasted sweet bun made with flour, butter, eggs, milk, sugar, spices, and optional currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Spanish Buns

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift ½ lb flour into a broad pan; sift ¼ lb flour separately into a deep plate and set aside.

  2. Warm milk in a soup-plate; cut butter into pieces and warm over stove or near fire, not letting it get too hot.

  3. When butter is soft, stir it into the milk with a knife; set aside to cool.

  4. Beat eggs lightly; mix the milk and butter with them all at once; pour into the pan of flour.

  5. Add spices (nutmeg, mace, cinnamon), rose‑water, and optionally eight drops of lemon essence.

  6. Add yeast (increase quantity if not strong and fresh).

  7. Stir the mixture hard with a knife.

  8. Add sugar gradually, a little at a time, to avoid heavy buns.

  9. Sprinkle in the reserved ¼ lb flour gradually; stir all well together.

Rise and bake

  1. Butter a square iron pan and put the dough in it.

  2. Cover with a cloth and set near the fire to rise; it will take at least five hours.

  3. When risen high and covered with bubbles, bake in a moderate oven for about a quarter hour or more, depending on thickness.

  4. When cooled, cut into squares and sprinkle loaf‑sugar over them.

  5. Optionally, bake separately in small square tins, adding ½ lb currants or raisins, well floured, stirred in at the last.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

907Calories
28 gProtein
26 gFat
140 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

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

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Currant + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 dough's structure, setting the crumb once baked.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Eggs
Add richness, colour and structure to the dough.
Yeast (in the method)
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Sugar
Sweetens the buns and feeds the yeast during rising.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy fruit pieces to the optional variation.

The step that matters

Rising the dough. The dough needs a long, warm rise until it is high and bubbly, because the yeast's gas is what makes the buns light. Adding sugar gradually and stirring well keeps the dough from turning heavy.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, lemon, flour, sugar, egg, wine, milk. 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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