Skip to main content
Dessert

Cream Raspberry Tarts

A tart with puff pastry shells filled with raspberries and a thickened cream custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Raspberry Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pastry and fruit

  1. Make a rich puff pastry.

  2. Pick, wash, and drain the raspberries.

  3. Roll out the pastry and place it in tart shells.

  4. Cover the pastry with a top crust.

  5. Bake until golden.

  6. Remove the top crust.

Make the cream filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine cream, flour, and sugar.

  2. Cook the mixture until thickened.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  4. Fold the beaten egg whites into the cream mixture.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the shells with raspberries.

  2. Pour the cream mixture over the raspberries.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Raspberries
Provide the main fruit flavor, tartness, and bright color at the centre of the tart.
White sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it thicken as it cooks with the cream.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, soft texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the filling and add airy structure.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture as it cooks, giving it body and stability.

The step that matters

Cook the cream mixture until thickened. Flour thickens only when the mixture is heated enough for its starch to swell. Undercooked filling stays runny and may not hold its shape once the egg whites are folded in and the tart is cut.

“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