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Dessert

Cherry Oakes

A pastry dough with cherries and almonds, baked into small cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cherry Oakes

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 the dough

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Whip the egg in a separate bowl until very light, then add it to the butter mixture.

  3. Gradually stir in the flour until the mixture is very stiff.

  4. Turn the mixture out onto a board and knead it lightly.

Add the fruit and nuts

  1. Finely chop the cherries.

  2. Blanch and chop the almonds.

  3. Roll out the dough.

  4. Sprinkle the cherries and almonds over it.

  5. Fold the dough together.

  6. Roll it out again.

  7. Fold it.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll it out to a thickness of ½ inch.

  2. Cut out rounds about the size of a crown piece.

  3. Place them on a floured baking sheet.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 minutes.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the dough's structure, so it becomes stiff enough to roll and cut.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and tenderizes the crumb when creamed with sugar.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, and binds the dough together.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the butter cream to a light texture.
Dried cherries
Add chewy sweetness and fruity flavor scattered through the dough.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavor, and brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the flour until the mixture is very stiff. Adding flour slowly lets it blend evenly without developing too much gluten, which would make the cookies tough. Stiff dough also holds its shape when rolled and 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.

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