Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Susan and Michael's Paint Brush Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix well with spoon in a large bowl, ¾ cup shortening, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 ½ cups gold medal flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon salt.
Cover dough and chill for 1 hour.
Prepare the paint and shape
Heat oven to 400°F.
Mix with fork in a small bowl, 1 egg yolk and ¼ teaspoon water.
Divide mixture among custard cups.
Add a few drops of food coloring to each cup to make red, green, blue, yellow and orange paint.
Roll chilled dough 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured cloth-covered board.
Cut with cookie cutters or make your own shapes.
Place on ungreased baking sheet.
Paint and bake
Paint the cookies.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until light brown on edges.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
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.
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,050 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Shortening
- Provides fat that makes the dough tender and short.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and the yolk helps the paint adhere and brown.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown at the edges.
- Gold medal flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once its gluten is set.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cookies rise slightly and stay light.
The step that matters
Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until light brown on edges. The cookies are thin and bake quickly, so they can over-brown or dry out past the light brown edge. Pulling them when the edges just turn golden keeps them tender.
Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour):
- Raisinbetter flavor fit
- Vanillathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, 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).
“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.
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