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Dessert

Sand Tarts

Sand Tarts are buttery almond pastries baked until light brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Sand Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the softened butter and granulated sugar together.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, then work in the flour until the dough is smooth and free of lumps.

  3. Chill the dough in the refrigerator until firm.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out a small piece of dough very thin and cut into squares using a pastry cutter.

  2. Place the squares on baking pans.

  3. Beat the egg white until stiff and brush it over each square.

  4. Top each square with a slice of almond, then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until light brown, watching closely.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to give the dough tenderness and a rich, short texture.
Eggs
Bind the dough, and the whites give a glossy brushed finish.
Flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the cut squares in shape.
Shelled almonds
Add a nutty flavour and crunch on top of each square.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the dough and, sprinkled on top, adds a crisp sugary crust.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown, watching closely. The dough is rolled very thin and holds a lot of sugar and butter, so it browns quickly. Pulling it when only lightly coloured keeps it tender and prevents the sugar from scorching into bitterness.

“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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