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Bread

Vienna Bread

A yeast-leavened bread made with Vienna flour, milk, butter, salt, and German yeast, baked into rolls or twists.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Vienna Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Rub the butter into the flour and add the salt.

  2. Warm the milk until lukewarm and mix it smoothly with the German yeast.

  3. Make a well in the center of the flour and stir in the milk mixture smoothly.

  4. Knead the dough very lightly for 1 minute, then place it in a warm spot to rise for 2 hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Once risen, shape the dough into rolls or twists and let them rise on greased tins for about 10 minutes.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on size.

  3. Brush with a little milk or egg white to glaze when nearly cooked.

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).

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

Vienna flour
Provides the gluten structure that traps gas and holds the shaped rolls together.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough and helps browning on the crust.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a softer texture.
German yeast
Produces carbon dioxide during fermentation, making the dough rise and become airy.

The step that matters

Warm the milk until lukewarm. Yeast is killed by hot liquid but works slowly in cold liquid, so milk that is only lukewarm activates the yeast and lets the dough rise properly.

“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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