Skip to main content
Dessert

Cinnamon Rolls

A sweet roll made from sponge dough, sugar, egg, butter, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Cinnamon Rolls

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cinnamon Rolls

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 dough

  1. Combine sponge, sugar, beaten egg, and butter.

  2. Knead the mixture well.

  3. Let the dough rise.

Shape and fill

  1. Roll out the dough to the thickness of cookie dough.

  2. Spread with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

  3. Roll the dough tightly and cut into 1-inch pieces.

  4. Place each piece flat in a pan and let them rise again.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  2. Serve warm or cold.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Bread + cinnamontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,705 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

Sponge
Provides the yeasted base that makes the dough rise and gives it an airy, bread-like crumb.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the dough hold together and bake tender.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richness, and carries the cinnamon-sugar filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling caramelize and brown slightly during baking.
Cinnamon
Provides the warm, aromatic flavour of the filling.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise. The sponge needs time to ferment and expand the dough, which gives the rolls their light, airy texture. Rolling or baking before the dough has risen properly leaves the rolls dense.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, egg, butter):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, butter. 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.

More cinnamon rolls recipes

Swedish 6 See all 63 →

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes