Skip to main content
Dessert

German Puffs

A sweet, airy pastry made from eggs, flour, milk, and a wine‑sugar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  3. Combine the egg yolks, flour, milk, and salt until smooth.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  5. Pour the mixture into muffin rings and bake until puffed and golden.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Stir in the egg yolk, wine, and boiling water until well mixed.

  3. Keep the sauce warm over a kettle of hot water.

  4. Just before serving, stir in the beaten egg white.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Whites trapped by beating and folding give the puffs their lift and airy structure.
Flour
Sets with the egg during baking to give the puffs a firm, sliceable body.
Milk
Adds moisture and liquid that steams in the oven to help the puffs rise.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and, creamed with butter, helps it turn smooth and light.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce, balancing its sweetness.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air only while intact; vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so the puffs will rise less and turn out dense.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes