Skip to main content
Dessert

Malted Milk Creams

A sweet, malted milk confection made with sugar, cream, malted milk, egg whites, glucose, vanilla, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Malted Milk Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a pot, combine sugar and cream of tartar, and cook until it reaches 254°F (123°C).

  2. Stir in sweet cream and malted milk mixture, bringing the temperature back to 242°F (117°C).

Finish and shape

  1. Cool the mixture on a slab.

  2. Once cooled, fold in the beaten egg whites and glucose until well combined.

  3. Flavor with vanilla and a little nutmeg.

  4. Roll out the mixture and coat with 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Sugar
Forms the sweet, crystalline bulk of the confection once cooked to a set temperature.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the texture of the cooked sugar mass.
Malted milk
Contributes a toasty, malty flavor and some milk solids to the mixture.
Whites of 8 eggs
Beaten stiff, they trap air and lighten the texture of the cooled mixture.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the finished creams smooth and soft.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture on a slab. Folding in the egg whites and glucose before the mass has cooled would melt the whites and make the mixture runny. Cooling first keeps the air and structure intact.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, milk, egg, vanilla):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Peppermintfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, milk, egg, vanilla. 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes