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Dessert

Kanas Puffs

A sweet baked puff made with molasses, raisins, currants, butter, sugar, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Kanas Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Stir in the molasses and sour milk.

  4. Add the baking soda, chopped raisins, and currants.

  5. Season with cloves and cinnamon to taste.

  6. Mix until the batter is slightly stiffer than cake batter.

Bake

  1. Spoon the mixture into little gem pans.

  2. Bake 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas, helping the puffs rise and lighten.
Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and adds richness and tenderness.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweetness that promotes browning.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness to the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter, aids browning, and helps create a tender texture.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of moisture and natural sweetness throughout the puffs.

The step that matters

Mix until the batter is slightly stiffer than cake batter. Overmixing develops gluten and makes the puffs tough, while a batter that is too thin will not hold its shape or rise well in the pans. Stopping at the right consistency keeps the texture light and tender.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, molasses, milk, raisin, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, molasses, milk, raisin, clove, cinnamon. 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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