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Double Layered Cookie

Joanna Lumley makes one absolutely fabulous giant cookie for Comic Relief. Use icing to pipe a message on the top, if desired.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 35,031 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 1 x 30cm/12in cookie
Prep1 hr
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, 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 180°C (350°F). Line a 30cm (12in) round or square tin with baking paper.

  2. Beat the softened butter (170g), soft brown sugar (200g) and caster sugar (100g) until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

  3. Sift in the plain flour, pinch of table salt, baking powder and ground ginger. Mix to a soft dough and press it evenly into the tin.

  4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden at the edges and set in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin.

  5. Melt the unsalted butter (120g), caster sugar (60g) and golden syrup together in a pan. Stir in the cocoa powder, then remove from the heat and fold in the puffed rice.

  6. Spread the crispy rice mixture evenly over the cooled cookie base and press it down gently. Chill for 20 minutes.

  7. Melt the dark chocolate (100g) in a bowl over barely simmering water, then stir it into half of the double cream. Pour over the rice layer and chill for 30 minutes until set.

  8. Finely chop the stem ginger. Whip the remaining double cream with the icing sugar until soft peaks form, then fold in most of the chopped ginger.

  9. Finely grate the zest of the grapefruit. Spread or pipe the whipped cream over the chocolate layer and sprinkle with the grapefruit zest and remaining ginger. Chill until ready to serve.

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

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

  2. Cocoa powder + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + syruptop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Syrup + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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