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Poppy Seed Almond Slices

"Tasty little cookies that are great for snacks."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and poppy seed share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 91 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓

The recipe

50 cookies
Prep15 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

  2. Beat the margarine, brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar together in a large bowl until light and creamy.

  3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth.

  4. Stir in the flour and salt until just combined, then mix in the chopped almonds and poppy seeds to form a soft dough.

  5. Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a log about 2 inches (5 cm) wide.

  6. Roll the logs in the 1/2 cup white sugar for rolling until evenly coated, then wrap and chill for 20 minutes so they firm up.

  7. Cut the logs into 1/4-inch (6 mm) slices and place them about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on the prepared sheets.

  8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden and the centers are set.

  9. Cool on the sheets for 2 minutes, then move to a rack to cool completely.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Almond + poppy seedtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

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

  3. Flour + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Vanilla + poppy seedtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, almond, poppy seed. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).