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Dessert

Ginger Puffs

A sweet ginger cookie made with egg, sugar, ginger, molasses, butter, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, beat the egg and mix in the sugar and ginger.

  2. Stir in the hot water and molasses until well combined.

  3. Melt the butter and add it to the mixture along with the baking soda.

  4. Gradually add the flour, mixing until smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into hot, well-buttered gem pans.

  2. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as the puffs set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing to a tender crumb and golden browning.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and hot liquid to produce gas that makes the puffs rise.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and flavour, and helps the crust brown.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and promotes browning on the outside of the puffs.

The step that matters

Pour into hot, well-buttered pans. Pouring the batter into hot, greased pans starts the set and rise immediately and helps the puffs release cleanly. Cold pans let the batter spread and stick before it sets.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

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