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Dessert

Spanish Buns

A sweet bun with cinnamon, topped with a brown sugar frosting.

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

Spanish Buns

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  3. Add the eggs and sweet milk, mixing well.

  4. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon until combined.

  5. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a greased baking sheet.

Bake and frost

  1. Bake for 15‑20 minutes or until golden brown.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gradually add brown sugar until thick, then mix in cinnamon to taste.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the buns a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the buns brown.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the spooned batter together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the buns rise and become light.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they form the airy base of the frosting.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Egg whites hold air only when fully whipped and free of grease or yolk. Under-beaten whites stay runny and won't support the sugar, so the frosting fails to thicken.

“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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