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Bread

Cinnamon Buns

A yeast dough with cinnamon and sugar, baked into soft buns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Buns

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.

Make the dough

  1. Scald the milk until it curdles.

  2. Mix the whey with the butter, sugar, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a very soft batter.

  3. If desired, you can use milk instead of whey.

  4. Once light, add enough flour to form a soft dough.

  5. Let the dough rise again.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll it out to 1 inch thick.

  2. Spread with butter.

  3. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

  4. Roll the dough tightly.

  5. Cut into 1-inch thick slices with a sharp knife.

  6. Lay the slices flat on baking tins.

  7. Sprinkle with more cinnamon and sugar.

  8. Let them rise until light.

  9. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Milk
Provides liquid and, once scalded and curdled, the whey used to moisten the dough.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richness, and is spread inside the rolled dough.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the buns brown in the oven.
Egg
Adds structure and richness to the soft dough.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light before baking. Yeast needs time to produce gas that expands the dough. Under-proofed buns stay dense, while the rise before baking gives them their light texture.

“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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