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Bread

Coffee Bread

A yeasted bread made with milk, flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Bread

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. Warm the milk to blood heat, stir in 2½ pints of flour, and beat until smooth.

  2. Soak the yeast in ⅓ cup warm water, then add it to the batter and let it rise overnight.

Make the dough

  1. In the morning, sift 3 pints of flour into a pan, make a hole in the middle, and add the sponge.

  2. Mix in 1 cup sugar, ½ cup soft butter, 1 teaspoon salt, and 2 egg yolks with your hands.

  3. Knead the mixture into a smooth lump, adding more flour if it sticks.

  4. Knead for about 10 minutes, then place in a greased bowl to rise until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into 4 parts and roll out to ½ inch thickness.

  2. Lay in a greased pan, brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

  3. Let it rise until light, then bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

  4. Turn out and let cool without covering.

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. Milk + buttertop 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. Flour + buttertop 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the batter and dough, giving the bread its body.
Yeast
Ferments the sponge overnight, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough, and helps it brown.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives richness.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and sweetens the bread, aiding browning on top.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, and help bind the dough for a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for the dough to expand. Rising too short leaves a dense loaf, while the final rise until light gives the bread its airy texture before baking.

“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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