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Dinner or Breakfast Rolls

A yeast bread roll made with butter, flour, milk, and eggs, baked in a warm oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 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 ↓

Dinner or Breakfast Rolls

twenty-four rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Crumb an ounce of butter into a couple of pounds of the best flour and mix with a large saltspoonful of salt.

  2. Put into a basin a dessertspoonful of solid, well‑purified yeast and half a teaspoonful of pounded sugar; mix these with half a pint of warm new milk.

  3. Hollow the centre of the flour, pour in the yeast gradually, stirring to incorporate sufficient surrounding flour to make a thick batter.

  4. Strew more flour on top, cover with a thick double cloth over the pan, and let it stand in a warm kitchen to rise.

  5. In winter, place it within a few feet of the fire.

  6. After about an hour, if the leaven has broken through the flour on top and risen considerably, mix one lightly‑whisked egg or the yolks of two with nearly half a pint more of quite warm new milk, and wet up the mass into a very smooth dough.

  7. Cover as before, and after half to three‑quarters of an hour turn it onto a pasteboard, and divide into twenty‑four equal portions.

Shape and bake

  1. Knead each portion lightly into small round or olive‑shaped rolls; make a slight incision around them, and cut them once or twice across the top.

  2. Place the rolls on slightly floured baking sheets, an inch or two apart.

  3. Let them remain for fifteen or twenty minutes to prove.

  4. Wash the tops with yolk of egg mixed with a little milk.

  5. Bake them in a rather brisk oven for ten to fifteen minutes.

  6. Turn them upside down onto a dish to cool after they are taken from the tins.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

884Calories
28 gProtein
31 gFat
121 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
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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.

By Eliza Acton. 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 gluten network that gives the rolls their structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas, which makes the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and yeast and gives the dough a soft, tender crumb.
Egg
Adds richness and structure, and yolk wash helps the tops brown.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a richer flavour.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and helps the tops brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Warm, rising dough. Yeast works best in a warm place; if the dough is too cold it rises slowly, and if it is too hot the yeast can be killed. Wait until the leaven has risen considerably before adding the egg and milk.

“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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