Why it works: Cinnamon and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Monkey Biscuits
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the egg yolks with the powdered sugar until well combined.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Add the ground cinnamon to the yolk and sugar mixture, then gently fold in the egg whites.
Mix in the 4 eggs and sifted flour until fully combined.
Shape and bake
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Drop teaspoonfuls of batter onto the parchment, shaping them into rounds about the size of a half crown.
Join two rounds together with a spoon and sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top.
Bake in the preheated oven, watching closely as they bake quickly.
Once baked, remove them from the parchment while hot and press the two sides together.
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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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites and whole eggs give the batter lift and structure as they set in the oven.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and dissolves smoothly into the yolks for a fine, even crumb.
- Sifted flour
- Provides the starch that sets the biscuit structure once baked.
- Ground cinnamon
- Adds warm aroma and flavour to the batter.
The step that matters
Watching the bake closely. These small batter rounds bake quickly, so they can overbrown or dry out in minutes. Browning comes from sugars and proteins caramelising and reacting at high heat, so timing matters.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour):
- Jalapenofits about as well
- Cinnamonthe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour. 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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