Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Baskets Filled with Candied Fruits, or Ice Cream Fruits
Ingredients
Directions
Build the basket
Roll out the nougat to ¼ inch thick and cut a 10‑inch round.
Prepare 21 wires, each 5 inches long, and coat them with ⅜ inch thick colored pulled sugar.
Fasten the wires to the nougat round, leaving 1 inch space between each.
Imitate a rope with pulled sugar and arrange it around the base of the basket.
Roll additional sugar into strings ¼ inch thick and 3 feet long, braid them like a wicker basket around the wires.
Finish with another rope of sugar like the bottom.
Make handles 2½ inches in diameter with sugar and pass them through rings fastened with sugar cooked to crack.
Fill and serve
Inside the basket, arrange a nougat foundation and cover it with candied fruits, fresh fruits, or ice cream.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ordinary nougat
- Forms the rigid round base and inner foundation that holds the basket's shape.
- Colored pulled sugar
- Forms the decorative wires, ropes and handles that give the basket its structure and look.
- Additional pulled sugar
- Forms the braided strings that weave around the wires to create the wicker effect.
- Candied fruits
- Adds sweetness and concentrated fruit flavor to the filling.
- Fresh fruits
- Adds moisture, acidity and bright fresh flavor to the filling.
The step that matters
Fastening the handles with sugar cooked to crack. Sugar cooked to the hard-crack stage sets rigid and glassy once cooled, so it holds the handles firmly. Under-cooked sugar stays soft and sticky and can let the handles slip; overheated sugar browns and turns bitter.
“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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