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Breakfast or Tea Cakes, Hot

A yeasted dough cake made with flour, milk, butter, yeast, water, and egg, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Breakfast or Tea Cakes, Hot

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour and make a well in the center.

  2. Warm the milk and mix in the butter until melted.

  3. In a cup, dissolve the yeast in a little cold water.

  4. Pour the yeast mixture into the well of flour, followed by the warm milk and butter.

  5. Stir until you have a thick batter.

  6. Beat the egg and mix it into the batter.

  7. Cover the bowl and keep it warm until it rises slightly.

  8. Knead the dough well, then place it back in the warm area to rise more.

Shape and bake

  1. Once risen, form the dough into rolls.

  2. Bake for about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the cakes.

  3. While hot, brush the tops with milk.

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. Milk + buttertop 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 + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it rises and bakes.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise and become airy.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the batter, giving the cakes a tender crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and its sugars help the tops brown in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a richer flavor.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until it has risen slightly. Yeast needs warmth and time to produce gas. Under-proofed dough bakes up dense, while the warm, covered rise lets the gluten network trap gas for a light texture.

“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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