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Dessert

Spanish Buns

A sweet bun made with eggs, butter, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spanish Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and brown sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and milk and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add them to the wet mixture.

Bake and ice

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

  2. For the icing, beat the egg white until stiff, then gradually add the brown sugar and cinnamon.

  3. Spread the icing over the warm buns and return them to the oven to brown.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and carries flavour through the batter.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter form a soft, even crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and molasses flavour, and helps the crust brown.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the buns together as they bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it reacts, helping the buns rise and turn light.

The step that matters

Beating the egg white for the icing. Egg white must be beaten until stiff before the sugar is added gradually. Stiff whites trap air and hold their shape, while sugar added too fast or whites overbeaten can collapse and make the icing runny.

“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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