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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Make the batter
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the powdered sugar until well combined.
In a separate bowl, 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 combined.
Shape and bake
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 sift powdered sugar over them.
Bake in the preheated oven, watching closely as they bake quickly.
Once baked, cut them off 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks and folded in, they give the biscuits a light, airy structure.
- Egg yolks
- Beaten with the sugar, they add richness and help bind the batter.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and dissolves smoothly into the yolks for a fine texture.
- Sifted flour
- Provides the starch that sets the batter into a sturdy, cookie-like structure as it bakes.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that makes the biscuits light. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently and keep the mixture airy.
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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