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Dessert

Lady Abbess' Puffs

A sweet almond puff made with almonds, sugar, butter, rose or orange-flower water, jam, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

Lady Abbess' Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the paste

  1. Blanch the almonds and place them in cold water until dry.

  2. Pound the almonds in a mortar, adding a few drops of rose or orange-flower water to prevent oiling.

  3. Mix in the sugar and butter, pounding to a smooth paste.

Bake

  1. Spread the mixture evenly in small buttered patty pans.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until crisp, about an hour or more.

Finish and serve

  1. Let the puffs cool, then add a little jam and top with whipped cream before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Jordan almonds
Form the main body of the puffs, giving a ground, paste-like base that bakes crisp.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the paste and helps it dry and crisp during slow baking.
Fresh butter
Adds fat that enriches the paste and softens its texture.
Rose or orange-flower water
Adds fragrance and, in small amounts, keeps the pounded almonds from releasing oil.
Jam
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture to the cooled puffs.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven until crisp. Baking low and slow dries the almond paste through so it becomes crisp rather than browned or soft. Pulling it too early leaves the centre damp and chewy, while overbaking can scorch the sugar.

“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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