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Dessert

Maltese Almond Cookies

Maltese almond cookies are small almond-based biscuits made with ground almonds, sugar, lemon juice, egg whites, and flavored with almond and vanilla essences.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Maltese Almond Cookies

Oven375°F
Time25 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Combine ground almonds, sugar, lemon juice, and almond essence in a bowl.

  2. Whip the egg whites until stiff, then add to the almond mixture and mix well to make a dough.

Shape the cookies

  1. Lay rice paper on a flat baking dish.

  2. Place a tablespoon of the dough in your palm, roll it into a small ball, place on rice paper, and flatten slightly.

  3. Repeat the shaping process with the remaining dough.

Bake

  1. Press an almond into the top of each cookie, and bake at 375°F for 25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

364Calories
11 gProtein
6 gFat
63 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7

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 Wikibooks Cookbook.

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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Vanilla + ricetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Ground almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the cookie dough.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown in the oven.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiffness, they add lift and bind the dough together.
Lemon juice
Adds a small amount of acidity that brightens the flavour of the almonds.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites. Egg whites must be whipped until stiff so they trap air and give the dough lift. If they are under-whipped or deflated when folded in, the cookies will be dense and spread less evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, egg, vanilla, rice. 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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