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Dessert

Corn-flour Buns

Sweet buns made with corn flour, all-purpose flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Corn-flour Buns

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 the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the corn flour, all-purpose flour, and baking powder.

  3. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  4. Add one egg to the butter mixture, then mix in some of the flour mixture.

  5. Add the second egg and more flour mixture, beating well after each addition.

Bake and cool

  1. Spoon the batter into small well-buttered tins.

  2. Bake until golden brown.

  3. Turn the buns onto a sieve to cool.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the buns set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and helps the creamed mixture hold air for a lighter crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the buns and helps the creamed butter trap air, aiding browning.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main gluten structure that holds the buns together.
Corn flour
Adds corn flavour and a slightly tender, crumbly texture.

The step that matters

Beat well after each addition. Adding eggs one at a time and beating well lets each one emulsify fully into the butter and sugar. A smooth emulsion traps air and gives an even, light crumb; a split or curdled batter can bake up dense and greasy.

“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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