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Dessert

German Coffee Cake

A yeasted, sweet cake with a buttery crumb, topped with bread crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

German Coffee Cake

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 sponge

  1. Scald the milk and let it cool to body heat.

  2. Add the yeast and salt to the milk.

  3. Mix in half of the flour.

  4. Beat until full of air bubbles.

  5. Cover and place in a warm spot (about 75°F) until doubled in size.

Make the dough

  1. Add the softened butter, sugar, eggs, and the remaining flour.

  2. Beat for 20 minutes.

  3. Let rise again.

Top and bake

  1. Pour the batter into flat buttered pans.

  2. Top generously with a mixture of buttered bread crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon.

  3. Let it rise again until doubled in size.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as the gluten develops with beating.
Compressed yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas, which makes the batter rise and turn light and airy.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set and hold its airy texture when baked.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and its proteins and sugars contribute to browning.

The step that matters

Beating the batter for 20 minutes. Long beating develops gluten in the flour, giving the dough strength and an elastic structure that traps the gas from the yeast. Under-beating leaves a dense, coarse crumb.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg, sugar, butter, bread):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, sugar, butter, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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