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Springerle VI

"Soft at first, these cookies harden into 'dunkers' after about 3 weeks. (Yes, they keep a long time!) They need a mold for the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch cookie, but I bet that they can be made by simply cutting them out. You can substitute other flavorings for anise - lemon and almond are good."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Anise and flour work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 263 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

4 dozen
Prep12 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat (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 325°F (163°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

  2. Beat the eggs and white sugar together in a large bowl for about 5 minutes until thick and pale.

  3. Stir in the anise extract.

  4. In a separate bowl, whisk the cake flour and baking powder together, then add to the egg mixture a little at a time.

  5. Mix until a stiff, smooth dough forms, then knead briefly on a lightly floured surface.

  6. Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick and cut into small squares or rectangles with a knife.

  7. Place the pieces about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on the prepared sheets.

  8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops are set and the bottoms are just lightly golden.

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

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. Anise + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together263 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together104,138 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together89,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together122,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + anisetop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together328 recipes

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

Egg and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 104,138 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 anise

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

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  3. Jalapenobetter flavor fit
  4. Anisethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour. 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).