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Dessert

Ammonia Cookies

A cookie made with sweet cream, sugar, carbonate of ammonia, salt, flour, and sprinkled with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Ammonia Cookies

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

  1. In a bowl, combine sweet cream and sugar.

  2. Stir in the carbonate of ammonia and salt.

  3. Gradually add flour until the mixture thickens.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and sprinkle sugar on top.

  2. Cut out cookies and bake lightly at 350°F (175°C) until just done.

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

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

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the dough its body and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and, on top, adds crunch and helps the surface brown.
Carbonate of ammonia
Releases gas as it heats, lightening the dough so the cookies rise and turn crisp.
Flour
Thickens the mixture and provides the structure that holds the cookies together.

The step that matters

Bake lightly until just done. Carbonate of ammonia breaks down in the oven to release gas, which lightens the cookies. Baking too long dries them out and darkens them, so pull them once the edges are set.

“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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