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Dessert

Beignets Soufflés a LA Vanille

A puffed pastry dough flavored with vanilla, sweetened, and fried, then dusted with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Beignets Soufflés a LA Vanille

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Place a vanilla bean in 1½ cups of boiling milk and reduce by half.

  2. Remove the vanilla bean and add 3 ounces of unsalted butter to the milk.

  3. Bring to a boil and mix in enough sifted flour to form a soft dough, similar to choux pastry.

  4. Dry the dough for a few minutes, then transfer to another pot.

  5. Stir in 3 ounces of granulated sugar, 6 egg yolks, and ¼ teaspoon of salt.

  6. Whip 3 egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture along with 1 tablespoon of whipped cream.

Fry and serve

  1. Roll the dough into walnut-sized pieces and place them on a floured surface.

  2. Heat oil in a pan and fry the dough pieces until puffed and golden.

  3. Drain on a towel, dust with sugar, and serve immediately.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the dough, giving a tender, custard-like interior.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the dough and help it puff when fried.
All-purpose flour
Starch and gluten form the soft dough structure that holds its shape during frying.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat and moisture, tenderizing the dough and enriching its flavor.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and forms the base of the dough, adding softness and flavor.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the surface brown during frying.

The step that matters

Drying the dough before adding the eggs. Cooking off excess moisture keeps the dough firm enough to hold the eggs and puff properly; wet dough can spread and fry flat or greasy.

“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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