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Dessert

Almond Puffs

A baked almond paste confection made with flour, butter, powdered sugar, sweet and bitter almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds in a mortar to a smooth paste.

  2. Melt the butter in a bowl, then add the flour, powdered sugar, and pounded almonds.

  3. Beat the mixture well until combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease small cups or jelly pots with butter and fill them with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes, or longer if the puffs are large.

  3. Turn the puffs out onto a dish with the bottom side facing up and serve.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the puffs once ground to a paste.
Bitter almonds
Add a stronger, more pronounced almond aroma to the paste.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the puffs stay tender as they bake.
Flour
Gives the mixture structure so the puffs hold their shape while baking.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture bake to a fine, even texture.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture well until combined. Thorough beating evenly distributes the almond paste, butter, and flour, so the puffs bake with a uniform texture rather than dense pockets or uneven rise.

“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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