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Dessert

Almond Kisses

Almond Kisses are small baked confections made from whipped egg whites, powdered sugar, and powdered almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Kisses

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently stir in the powdered sugar and powdered almonds.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto well-buttered parchment paper, spacing them about 1 inch apart.

  2. Place the paper on a half-inch thick board and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until they begin to yellow.

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 + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks, they trap air and give the kisses their light, airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and dissolves into the whipped whites, helping them hold their shape and browning in the oven.
Blanched and powdered almonds
Add nutty flavor and body, thickening the batter so the spoonfuls keep their shape.

The step that matters

Gently stir in the powdered sugar and powdered almonds. Folding rather than beating keeps the air bubbles in the whipped egg whites intact. Overmixing collapses the foam, so the kisses spread flat and bake up dense instead of light.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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