Skip to main content
Dessert

Yeast Buns

Yeast buns are sweet bread rolls made with milk, yeast, sugar, flour, eggs, butter, sultanas, candied peel, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Yeast 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 sponge

  1. Cream the yeast and sugar together.

  2. Make the milk lukewarm and pour it onto the yeast.

  3. Gradually mix in the flour and knead lightly.

  4. Let the mixture rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the butter.

  2. Add sugar to the sifted flour.

  3. When the sponge is ready, beat in all ingredients alternately.

  4. Let the mixture rise for another hour.

Shape, bake and glaze

  1. Turn onto a floured board and cut into equal portions.

  2. Roll each portion smooth and round, then place on a tray to prove for a few minutes.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 20 minutes.

  4. When cooked, brush with a syrup made from boiling 1 oz sugar and 4 teacups water for a few minutes.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Flour
Forms the gluten structure that traps gas and sets the crumb of the buns.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide during the rises, which makes the buns light and airy.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping bind the dough and give a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a rich flavour.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning in the oven.
Milk
Supplies moisture and protein that enrich the dough and soften the crumb.

The step that matters

Let the sponge and dough rise fully. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas; underproved dough bakes dense, while the rise develops the gluten and the light texture of the buns.

“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.

You might also like

Oranges in SyrupOranges in Syrup9 recipesSyrup SauceSyrup Sauce6 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes