Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine scalded milk, butter, sugar, and salt.
When lukewarm, add the dissolved yeast, cinnamon, flour, and beaten egg.
Mix thoroughly, then fold in the raisins or currants.
Cover the mixture and let it rise overnight.
Shape and bake
In the morning, shape the dough into buns and place them in a pan one inch apart.
Let the buns rise again, then brush the tops with beaten egg.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
Cool the buns and decorate the tops with ornamental frosting to create a cross.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the buns their structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
- Egg
- Adds richness and structure, and beaten egg on top promotes browning.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens texture.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and protein that enrich the dough's texture and flavor.
The step that matters
Letting the buns rise again before baking. The second rise lets the yeast inflate the shaped buns so they bake up light. Under-proofed buns stay dense, while over-proofed buns may collapse or lose shape in the oven.
“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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