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Dessert

Almond Diamonds

A sweet almond confection shaped into diamond pieces, baked and dusted with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Almond Diamonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the paste

  1. Blanch and pound the almonds until fine.

  2. Mix the almonds with sugar and enough egg white to form a stiff paste.

  3. Dust a surface with sugar and roll out the paste to ¼ inch thick.

  4. Cut the paste into diamond shapes using a pastry cutter.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) for 20 minutes.

  2. Once cooled, brush the diamonds with syrup and sprinkle with sugar.

  3. Dry them in the oven.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Almond + syruptop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Almond + eggtop 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the cookie.
Sugar
Sweetens the paste and helps it hold a dry, crisp texture when baked.
Egg white
Binds the ground almonds and sugar into a stiff paste that can be rolled and cut.

The step that matters

Baking in a cool oven. Ground almonds and sugar brown easily and can dry out or toughen at high heat. A low, steady oven sets the paste and dries it gently without over-browning the diamonds.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, syrup. 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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