Skip to main content
Bread

Yeast Wreaths

Yeast wreaths are sweet, almond-topped bread rings made from a yeast dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Yeast Wreaths

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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Warm the flour in a pan.

  2. Mix the yeast with the lukewarm milk and stir into the center of the flour to form a batter.

  3. Cover the batter and let it rise.

  4. Add the softened butter, eggs, sugar, and salt to the risen batter.

  5. Work the mixture into a smooth dough.

Shape and rise

  1. Divide the dough into six parts and roll each into long bars.

  2. Plait two bars together to form twists.

  3. Shape the twists into rings on a buttered baking sheet, joining the ends.

  4. Let the rings rise in a warm place until light.

Finish and bake

  1. Brush the risen rings with beaten egg.

  2. Sprinkle the rings with chopped almonds and powdered sugar.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 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).

Flour and butter 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

Fine flour
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the rings' shape.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Eggs
Add richness and structure, and their beaten coating helps the rings brown.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a rich texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.
Milk
Provides moisture to hydrate the flour and activate the yeast.

The step that matters

Let the rings rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for the dough to expand. Rising too little leaves dense rings, while over-proofing can cause them to collapse in the oven.

“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

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes