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Dessert

Almond Biscuit

A short, sweet biscuit made with flour, butter, sugar, almonds, milk, eggs, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, rub together the butter, sugar, and flour.

  3. Add the pounded almonds, milk, eggs, and baking soda.

  4. Knead the mixture until smooth.

  5. Let it rest in a cool place for a short time.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough into thin sheets.

  2. Cut with a round cutter and prick with a fork.

  3. Bake on slightly buttered baking sheets until golden.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Butter
Adds fat that makes the biscuit tender and rich in flavour.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the biscuit together as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the biscuit brown as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough to lift it and help the biscuit spread and brown.
Sweet and bitter almonds
Add nutty aroma and a rich, slightly oily texture to the dough.

The step that matters

Knead until smooth, then rest the dough. Kneading develops the dough so it rolls into thin, even sheets, while resting lets the gluten relax so the dough does not shrink or toughen when rolled and cut.

“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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