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Dessert

English Bath Buns

A sweet yeast bread with almonds, baked in muffin tins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

English Bath Buns

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.

Make the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast cakes and 1 tablespoon of sugar in lukewarm milk.

  2. Add melted butter and un-beaten eggs.

  3. Gradually mix in flour sifted with salt until thick but not stiff.

  4. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1½ hours or until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Sprinkle the remaining 5 tablespoons of sugar and finely chopped almonds over the top. Mix very lightly.

  2. Drop the mixture into well-greased muffin pans.

  3. Cover and let rise until light, about ½ hour.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 to 20 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 + 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

Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that holds the risen dough together.
Eggs
Add richness and structure, helping the buns set as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the buns and feeds the yeast; it also helps browning.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavour to the sugary topping.

The step that matters

Mix the topping in very lightly. Overmixing knocks air out of the dough and deflates the gas the yeast has built up, so the buns rise less and turn dense. Keeping the mixing gentle preserves the light texture the second rise depends on.

“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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