Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Martin Jumbles
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Sift 1 teaspoon baking soda into the flour in a large bowl.
Add the brown sugar, softened butter, ground cinnamon, egg yolks, and brandy; mix until well combined.
Shape the rolls
Sprinkle fine sugar on a clean surface.
Take a piece of dough, roll it into a ball, then coat it in sugar and shape it into a ring by joining the ends.
Place the rings on a baking sheet, leaving space between them.
Bake and finish
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until light brown.
Let them cool slightly, then carefully remove with a knife.
Clean the baking sheet between batches; do not grease or flour it.
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.
-
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,199 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure that holds the dough and rolls together.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the rolls brown in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the dough rich and tender.
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and help bind the dough.
- Ground cinnamon
- Provides the warm, aromatic flavour that defines the rolls.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and a deeper flavour to the dough.
The step that matters
Bake until light brown. Sugar browns quickly at 350°F, so color is the main sign of doneness. Pulling the rolls too late can scorch the sugar and make them bitter, while pulling them too early leaves the dough doughy inside.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, brandy):
- Cinnamonthe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, brandy. 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.
More cinnamon rolls recipes
You might also like
Brandy Peaches68 recipes
Cinnamon Cake42 recipes
Brandy Cream21 recipes
Brandy Pudding13 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.