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Bread

Coffee Bread

A yeasted bread with raisins, cinnamon, butter, and sugar.

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

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Measure the flour before sifting, then sift it.

  2. Add sugar and rub in the butter.

  3. Mix in the yeast, then add the warm milk and knead for 15 minutes.

Rise and knead

  1. Cover the dough and let it rise all day.

  2. In the evening, add the beaten egg and knead thoroughly.

  3. Cover well and let it rise all night.

Shape and bake

  1. In the morning, stir in the cinnamon and raisins.

  2. Shape the dough using as little flour as possible.

  3. Let it rise to the top of the pan and bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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
Provides the structure that the gluten network builds and holds the dough together.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas during fermentation, which makes the dough rise and become airy.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavour.
Milk
Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and helps form the gluten network.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough, giving a softer structure.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture pockets throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Shape the dough using as little flour as possible. Extra flour worked into the surface of the dough adds dry starch and raises the ratio of flour to moisture, which can make the baked bread dense and dry. Light handling keeps the dough soft and its gas bubbles intact.

“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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