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Dessert

Cinnamon Rolls

A sweet roll made from bread sponge, butter, sugar, cinnamon, and fried in hot fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Reserve the bread sponge before it has risen.

  2. Mix the dough to the same consistency as for Parker house rolls.

  3. Let it rise a second time, then invert onto a floured surface.

  4. Roll the dough to ½ inch thick, then cut into strips 1 inch wide and 2 inches long.

Proof and fry

  1. Warm a board or pan, lay a piece of muslin on it, and dust with flour.

  2. Place the rolls on the muslin 1 inch apart, cover with a tea towel, and let rise until doubled in size.

  3. Drop the rolls into hot fat and fry until golden.

Finish

  1. Roll the fried rolls in powdered sugar and cinnamon.

  2. Cool on a wire rack.

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Bread sponge
Provides a pre-fermented base that gives the dough its rise and yeasty flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps browning during frying.
Flour
Forms the dough's structure and keeps the strips from sticking while shaping.

The step that matters

Frying the rolls in hot fat. If the fat is too cool, the rolls absorb excess oil and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks. Steady heat gives a golden, evenly cooked roll.

“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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