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Bread

German Rolls

German rolls are small bread balls made from French bread dough, baked until golden and brushed with egg‑milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

German Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare a dough similar to French bread.

  2. Roll the dough into small round balls.

  3. Place the balls on a greased baking sheet, spaced apart.

  4. Allow the rolls to rise.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake until golden brown.

  2. Brush the tops with a mixture of beaten egg and milk.

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 + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

French bread dough
Provides the bread structure that gives the rolls their chewy crumb as it rises and bakes.
Egg
Brushed on top, it promotes browning and a glossy, golden crust.
Milk
Mixed with the egg, it thins the wash so it spreads evenly and adds color and sheen to the crust.

“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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