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Bread

Coffee Bread

A yeast bread loaf with raisins, sugar, and cinnamon topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Coffee Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Scald the milk and dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

  2. Add enough flour to make a stiff batter.

  3. Once the batter is light, stir in the melted butter, sugar, salt, and beaten egg.

  4. Incorporate about 2 cups of flour to form a loaf.

  5. Let the dough rise until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough in half and roll out each half with a rolling pin.

  2. Dot raisins around the dough and roll it up like a jelly roll.

  3. Place the rolled dough in pans and let it rise until light.

  4. Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the dough together and gives the loaf its body.
Yeast
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough, adding structure and a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and richer flavor.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough, along with some richness.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light. The yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for the dough to expand. Rising too briefly leaves a dense loaf, while the rise before shaping and the second rise in the pans both build the airy 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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