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Dessert

Christmas Angel Cookies

Cookies made with shortening, cream cheese, sugars, eggs, flour, baking soda, salt, vanilla, candied fruit, and nuts, baked until lightly browned.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and pecans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,691 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Christmas Angel Cookies

3 dozen
Oven350°F
Time10–12 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

  2. In a large bowl, cream shortening and cream cheese until smooth and fluffy.

  3. Add sugars and eggs, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda and salt together.

  5. Add flour mixture to egg and sugar mixture; add vanilla.

  6. Add candied fruit and nuts. You may have to mix candied fruit and nuts in with your hands; a little shortening on your fingers will keep the mixture from sticking.

Bake

  1. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for about 10–12 minutes until the cookies are just browned at the edges.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

822Calories
22 gProtein
31 gFat
111 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream Cheese1 oz (28g)99
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Pecan1 half (4g)20
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Fruitnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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.

  1. Vanilla + pecanstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,691 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  3. Cream cheese + pecanstop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together465 recipes

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

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream cheese + vanillatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,929 recipes

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

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

Cream cheese
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the cookie dough.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sugars and helps the cookies rise and brown.
Candied fruit
Adds sweetness, color and bright flavor throughout the cookies.
Light brown sugar
Adds moisture and molasses flavor, helping keep the cookies soft and chewy.

The step that matters

Bake just until the edges brown. Cookies keep baking on the hot sheet after leaving the oven. Pulling them when only the edges are browned keeps the centers soft rather than dry and hard.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Macadamia nutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Pecansthe original

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

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