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Dessert

Washington Biscuits

A sweet biscuit made with sugar, egg yolks, almonds, rum, corn, egg whites, flour, apricot jam, and glacé icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour 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 ↓

Washington Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the sugar and egg yolks with a wooden spoon until very light.

  2. Add the ground almonds and rum, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the Oswego prepared corn.

  4. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  5. Mix in the finely sifted flour.

  6. Fill small round biscuit tins with the mixture.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Once done, spread each biscuit with apricot jam and dip in glacé icing.

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. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Rum + apricottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Almond + corntop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Enrich the batter and add richness and a tender crumb when beaten with sugar.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they trap air that lifts and lightens the biscuits.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and, when beaten with the yolks, helps create a light texture.
Ground almonds
Add moisture, tenderness and a nutty flavour to the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
Rum
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the batter.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Stirring or folding roughly knocks that air out, leaving dense biscuits, so fold gently until just combined.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, almond, rum, corn, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, almond, rum, corn, 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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