Skip to main content
Dessert

French Rolls

A sweet roll made from sponge, lard, butter, sugar, and flour, rolled, sliced, and baked.

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

Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

French Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the sponge, salt, lard, butter, and soft white sugar.

  2. Add enough flour to form a soft dough and let it rise until very light.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough to about ½ inch thick and spread with melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

  2. Roll the dough like a jelly roll and cut into 1-inch lengths.

  3. Place the rolls in pans and let them rise again until very light.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes.

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 + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

Sponge
Provides yeast and fermentation that makes the dough rise and become light.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the rolls soft.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and browns the surface of the rolls in the oven.
Soft white sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and softness to the dough.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that traps gas so the dough rises and holds its shape.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until very light. Yeast needs time to produce gas that expands the gluten network. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough can 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.

More french rolls recipes

Asparagus Stuffed 4 See all 185 →

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes