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Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls are sweet yeast dough rolls flavored with cinnamon and sugar, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cinnamon Rolls

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 ↓

Cinnamon Rolls

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.

Make the dough

  1. Prepare a sponge with the scalded milk.

  2. When lukewarm, add 2 cups flour and dissolved yeast. Beat thoroughly.

  3. Cover to rise.

  4. When light, add beaten eggs, softened butter, sugar, salt, and enough flour to knead. Knead until smooth and elastic.

Shape the rolls

  1. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness.

  2. Spread generously with soft butter.

  3. Sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

  4. Roll like a jelly roll.

  5. Cut into ½ inch thick slices.

  6. Place slices close together, cut side down, in a buttered baking pan.

  7. Brush between rolls with melted butter. Cover.

  8. Let rise.

Bake and glaze

  1. When light, bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C). Remove from oven.

  2. Brush with egg white diluted with 2 tablespoons cold milk. Return to oven to brown.

  3. Repeat brushing for a glossy appearance.

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

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

  2. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Enrich the dough and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds tenderness and richness to the dough and keeps the rolls moist.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Softens the dough and adds tenderness and browning from its milk sugars.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and feeds the yeast, and helps the crust brown.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time to produce gas and build the dough's airy structure. Rolling or baking before it is properly risen gives dense rolls, while over-proofing can cause them to collapse.

“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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