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Dessert

Swedish Bread

A yeast bread rolled thin, coated with cinnamon and sugar, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Swedish Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Fill the dough

  1. Roll the dough very thin.

  2. Mix cinnamon with sugar and spread over the dough.

  3. Moisten the dough with cold water before sprinkling the cinnamon and sugar.

Shape

  1. Roll the dough tightly and cut into slices with a sharp knife.

  2. Place the slices on well-greased baking sheets.

Rise and bake

  1. Let them rise for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Bread + cinnamontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,705 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Yeast bread dough
Forms the soft, airy structure that rises and holds the spiral shape.
Cinnamon
Provides the warm, spiced aroma that defines the bread.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling caramelize slightly during baking.
Cold water
Lightly dampens the dough so the cinnamon and sugar cling to it.

The step that matters

Moisten the dough before sprinkling the filling. A thin film of water helps the cinnamon and sugar stick to the dough surface. Without it, the filling can fall out when the dough is rolled and sliced.

“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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