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Imitation French Rolls, with Baking Powder

A quick yeast‑free roll made with flour, baking powder, butter, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Imitation French Rolls, with Baking Powder

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

  2. Add melted butter or lard, egg yolks, and milk. Mix until a dough forms.

  3. Let the dough rest for a few minutes to relax.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into split rolls by cutting out pieces.

  2. Brush the rolls with melted lard and place them in pans.

  3. Allow the rolls to rise for 20 minutes, if possible.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Flour
Forms the gluten structure that gives the rolls their body.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the rolls rise and become light.
Butter or lard
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and browns the crust when brushed on.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify fat, helping the dough hold together smoothly.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form the dough and adds softness and browning sugars.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. Baking powder gas escapes quickly once the dough is shaped, so rolls should go into a hot oven promptly after rising. Baking in a preheated oven sets the structure fast and browns the crust, while underbaking leaves the centre gummy and pale.

“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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