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Dessert

Spanish Buns

A sweet yeast bread made with eggs, flour, sugar, butter, milk, spices, and rose water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Spanish Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift ½ pound of flour into a broad pan and set aside.

  2. In a soup plate, warm the milk and cut the butter into it until very soft; let it cool.

  3. Beat the eggs lightly and mix them with the milk and butter.

  4. Pour the mixture into the pan of flour, add the spices and rose-water (or lemon essence), and the yeast.

  5. Stir vigorously with a knife, gradually adding the sugar.

  6. Slowly sprinkle in the remaining ¼ pound of flour and mix well.

Rise and bake

  1. Butter a square baking pan and pour in the mixture.

  2. Cover with a cloth and let it rise near a warm place for about 5 hours until bubbly.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 15-20 minutes, depending on thickness.

  4. Once cool, cut into squares.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rose + macetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together498 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the buns their structure.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, soft crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas during the long rise, making the dough light and bubbly.
Powdered white sugar
Sweetens the dough and feeds the yeast while adding softness.
Rich milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the dough soften.

The step that matters

Stir in the remaining flour gradually. Adding flour slowly and mixing well keeps the dough evenly hydrated and lets the gluten develop smoothly, so the rise is even and the texture is consistent.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, milk, butter, rose, nutmeg. 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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