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Baking

Coffee Rolls

Coffee rolls are baked dough rolls made with flour, butter, baking powder, milk, sugar, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Coffee Rolls

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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Mix the baking powder and flour together in a bowl.

  3. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.

  4. Add the beaten egg and milk to the butter mixture, mixing well.

  5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients to form a dough with a consistency similar to scones.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into an oblong form and cut into rolls.

  2. Place the rolls on a baking sheet and bake for about 20-25 minutes or 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the rolls rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough comes together and adds tenderness.

The step that matters

Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Mixing too vigorously develops gluten and makes rolls tough, while stopping once the dough just holds together keeps them tender. Add milk gradually so the dough reaches a scone-like consistency without becoming sticky.

“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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