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Dessert

Almond Butter Rolls

A pastry made from buttered dough filled with almond and lemon mixture, baked and optionally topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Butter Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Beat the egg yolk well, then add cold water and the whole egg, beating until combined.

  2. Combine sifted flour and butter, then add the beaten eggs and mix lightly until just combined.

  3. Cover the dough and refrigerate overnight.

  4. Roll the dough thin the next morning.

Make the filling

  1. Beat together 2 egg yolks, chopped almonds, lemon rind, lemon juice, and sugar for 30 minutes in one direction.

Shape and bake

  1. Spread the filling on the rolled dough, then roll it up like a jelly roll.

  2. For cream rolls, cut the dough into narrow strips and roll on cream roll tins.

  3. Place in an unbuttered pan and bake until golden.

Fill and serve

  1. Once baked, fill with a mixture of 3 beaten egg whites and ½ cup powdered sugar, or with whipped cream for a richer option.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the dough become flaky and tender.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the rolled dough together during baking.
Eggs
Add structure and richness to the dough, and bind the filling.
Chopped almonds
Add nutty flavour and texture to the filling.
Lemon rind and juice
Add aroma and acidity that brighten the sweet almond filling.

The step that matters

Beating the filling for 30 minutes. Long, steady beating of the egg yolks and sugar incorporates air and dissolves the sugar, giving the filling a smooth, light texture rather than a dense one.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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