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Rolls and Fruit Bread

A yeast bread with raisins, cinnamon, and cloves, baked into a loaf and rolls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Rolls and Fruit 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.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the yeast, flour, sugar, and butter.

  2. Add the egg and mix until well combined.

  3. Knead the dough as you would for bread.

  4. Once the dough is light, fold in the raisins, cinnamon, and cloves.

  5. Let the dough rise longer than plain bread.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a loaf pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

  3. Use the remaining dough to make rolls.

  4. Let the rolls rise until very light before baking.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough for a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a richer texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise longer than plain bread. The dough is enriched with sugar, butter and egg, which slows yeast activity. A longer rise lets the yeast build enough gas for a light texture, and underproofing leaves a dense loaf.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, sugar, butter, raisin, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, sugar, butter, raisin, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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