Skip to main content
Bread

Vienna Bread

Vienna Bread is a yeast‑leavened roll made with flour, butter, milk, sugar, yeast, salt, and egg.

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

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Vienna Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Mix yeast and sugar in a small bowl until liquid.

  3. Melt butter in a saucepan, add milk, and warm slightly.

  4. Pour warm milk mixture into yeast mixture and stir well.

  5. Make a well in the flour, pour in yeast mixture, and mix to form dough.

  6. Let dough rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.

  7. Turn dough onto a floured board and knead for 10 minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide dough into pieces and shape into rolls.

  2. Place rolls on a floured baking tray and let them prove for 10 minutes.

  3. Bake rolls in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20–25 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
Butter
Adds fat, which tenderises the crumb and gives a richer flavour.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and contributes sweetness and browning in the crust.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the dough bind and the crumb set.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Under-kneading leaves a weak, dense loaf that rises poorly and has a coarse crumb.

“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

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes