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Dessert

Nougat Cup Cakes

A confection made by cooking sugar and glucose, folding in beaten egg whites, adding nuts and fruit, then shaping into cups and dipping in chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 993 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Nougat Cup Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the nougat base

  1. Dissolve sugar and glucose in water and cook to 250°F (120°C).

  2. Pour half of the mixture in a fine stream over the beaten egg whites.

  3. Cook the remaining mixture to 286°F (140°C).

  4. Pour it in a fine stream over the first mixture while stirring continuously.

Add the fruit and nuts

  1. Add chopped French fruits, walnuts, pecans, almonds, and vanilla extract.

  2. Stir until thick.

Shape and dip

  1. Pour the mixture onto a slab.

  2. Weigh off 2 oz pieces.

  3. Shape each piece into an oval like an egg.

  4. Dip each piece in melted bitter sweet chocolate.

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. Walnut + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

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

  2. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Walnut + pecanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Pecans + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together431 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped foam that traps air and gives the nougat its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetness and, once cooked, a firm setting structure for the nougat.
Glucose
Keeps the cooked sugar from crystallising, giving a smoother, chewier texture.
Mixed french fruits
Adds moisture, chewiness and fruity sweetness throughout the nougat.
Almonds
Adds crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft nougat.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup in a fine stream while beating. Pouring the hot sugar syrup too fast or all at once can deflate the beaten egg whites and cook them unevenly. A thin, steady stream while stirring lets the syrup blend in gently and keeps the foam light.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, pecans, almond, vanilla, chocolate):

  1. Hazelnutfits better
  2. Macadamia nutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, pecans, almond, vanilla, chocolate. 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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