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Dessert

Beignets De Pommes

Apple slices soaked in brandy and powdered sugar, battered, fried, and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,291 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Beignets De Pommes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Core the apples using a 2 cm corer.

  2. Peel the apples.

  3. Slice the apples into 8 mm thick rings.

  4. Combine the apple slices with brandy and powdered sugar. Mix gently to avoid breaking the slices.

  5. Drain the apples on a cloth.

  6. Pat the apples dry.

Fry

  1. Heat the frying fat in a small pot until hot.

  2. Remove the pot from the heat.

  3. Dip each apple slice into the batter.

  4. Carefully place the battered slice in the hot fat.

  5. Return the pot to the heat.

  6. Fry until golden and dry.

  7. Drain the fried slices on a cloth.

Finish

  1. Trim excess batter strands around the beignets with scissors.

  2. Dust the beignets with powdered sugar on both sides.

  3. Arrange the beignets on a plate lined with a napkin.

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. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Apples
Provide the fruity body and moisture that sit inside the crisp batter coating.
Batter for frying
Forms a thin coating that sets and turns crisp and golden in the hot fat.
Frying fat
Transfers heat quickly to cook the batter and drive browning and crispness.
Brandy
Adds a warm aroma to the apples as they soak with the sugar.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness to the apples and a fine sweet dusting on the finished beignets.

The step that matters

Pat the apples dry before battering. Surface water from the soaked apples steams in the hot fat, which can make the batter slide off and splatter. Dry slices let the batter cling and fry to a crisp coating.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar. 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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