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Dessert

Cream Rolls

A sweet roll made with milk, cream, butter, sugar, flour, yeast, baking soda, eggs, and butter, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Scald the milk and cream in a saucepan.

  2. Add the butter, salt, and sugar to the lukewarm mixture.

  3. Sift in enough bread flour to make a thin batter and add the dissolved yeast.

  4. Mix at bedtime and let rise overnight.

  5. In the morning, add the baking soda dissolved in warm water and beat well.

  6. Add the beaten eggs and work in more flour until the dough resembles biscuit dough.

  7. Work down the dough again around 11 a.m.

  8. If needed for 4 p.m. tea, work down again and shape into rolls or cut with a biscuit cutter.

Shape and bake

  1. Let the rolls rise on a floured board for 30 minutes.

  2. Place a bit of butter on each roll, fold over, and place in pans.

  3. Let rise for 20 minutes, then bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Add structure and richness to the dough as they set during baking.
Bread flour
Provides gluten that builds the structure of the dough.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise overnight and again before baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Milk and cream
Add moisture and richness, giving the rolls a soft, tender texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough's acidity to add lift and help browning.

The step that matters

Work the dough to a biscuit-like consistency before the rises. Adding flour gradually until the dough resembles biscuit dough sets the right structure. Too little flour leaves it sticky and slack, while too much makes the rolls dense and dry.

“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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