Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cream Cookies
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the dough
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until well combined.
Add the sweet cream, butter, lemon flavoring, and baking powder; mix well.
Gradually add flour until a stiff dough forms.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough very thin and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven until lightly golden.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they beat with the sugar.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, when beaten with the eggs, helps create a tender texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and tenderness in the baked cookie.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the dough.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the dough to give the cookies lift as they bake.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the dough into a stiff, shapeable form.
The step that matters
Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough bakes quickly and evenly, so cookies turn lightly golden and crisp rather than thick and cakey. Gradually adding flour until stiff keeps the dough workable for rolling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cream, butter, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream, butter, flour. 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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