Skip to main content
Bread

German Bread

A yeast-leavened sweet bread with cinnamon and sugar topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Bread

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. In a bowl, combine the boiled milk and yeast to create a rise.

  2. Once light, mix in the sugar and lard or butter.

  3. Add enough flour to form a soft dough that can be handled.

Shape and top

  1. Flour a surface and roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick.

  2. Divide the dough into two large pieces and make a dozen indentations on top.

  3. Place a small piece of butter in each indentation.

  4. Mix the tablespoon of sugar with the cinnamon and sift over the dough.

  5. Let the dough rise again until perfectly light.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Baker's yeast
Ferments the milk mixture so the dough rises and becomes light.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar for the dough.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and holds the rise.
Lard or butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and enriches the dough's texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise again until perfectly light. The second rise lets the yeast build gas and stretch the gluten before baking. Underproofed dough stays dense, while overproofed dough can collapse in the oven.

“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 german bread recipes

Pudding 11Fritters 7Cake 5 See all 13 →

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes