Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Rolls

Apple rolls are a baked dessert made with apples, flour, sugar, butter, egg, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Apple Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Beat in the egg, then add the milk and mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

  5. Fold in the chopped apples and vanilla.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

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

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

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

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

  3. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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
Provides the structure that holds the rolls together as they bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the batter rises and becomes light.
Eggs
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the crust brown.
Chopped apples
Add moisture and fruity flavor throughout the batter.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions helps it blend evenly without overworking it. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the rolls tough and dense.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

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

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipes