Skip to main content
Dessert

Almond Bar

A sweet almond confection made by boiling water, glucose, and sugar, then adding almonds until the mixture thickens.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Bar

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 290°F (143°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

  1. Boil water in a large pot.

  2. Add glucose and sugar, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Add almonds and boil the mixture at 290°F (143°C) until it reaches the desired consistency.

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. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the mixture smooth and giving a chewy, less brittle texture.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, once cooked to temperature, sets into the body of the bar.
Almonds
Supply the nutty flavor and crunchy texture that run through the finished bar.

The step that matters

Boiling to the desired consistency. Sugar syrup firms as its temperature rises and water evaporates. Stopping too early leaves the bar soft and sticky, while cooking too far makes it hard and brittle. Checking the temperature at 290°F (143°C) and judging the consistency helps the cook hit the right point.

“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.

More almond bar recipes

Brown 5 See all 2 →

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes