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Dessert

Spanish Bun

A sweet, spiced bun made with brown sugar, sour cream, eggs, flour, spices, baking soda, and optional butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Spanish Bun

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spanish Bun

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar and sour cream. Add the eggs and mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and baking soda.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.

  5. If using sour milk, add the butter to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into gem pans or a shallow loaf pan.

  2. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the bun brown and stay tender.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity works with the baking soda to help the batter rise.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of the sour cream to produce gas that lifts the batter.

The step that matters

Stirring the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Stirring only until just combined keeps gluten development low, so the bun stays tender rather than tough. Overmixing toughens the crumb.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, egg, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, egg, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice. 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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