Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Iced
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the egg white to a firm froth.
When the pastry is almost done, remove it from the oven and brush it with the egg white.
Cover the pastry with powdered sugar and sprinkle a few drops of water on top.
Return the pastry to the oven for a few minutes to harden without coloring.
Alternatively, mix powdered sugar with the beaten egg white and cold water, stirring until used.
Brush the icing on the nearly cooled pastry and place it in a cool oven to harden.
Another option is to moisten the pastry with cold water before baking and press powdered sugar lightly on top.
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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg white
- Beaten to a froth, it forms a glossy coating that sets to a crisp, hard icing.
- Powdered sugar
- Provides the sweet, white icing layer that hardens as it dries or bakes.
- Cold water
- Moistens the surface so the powdered sugar sticks and forms a thin, even layer.
The step that matters
Returning the pastry to the oven without coloring. Sugar browns quickly at high heat. Keeping the oven low and the time short lets the icing harden and stay white instead of caramelizing.
“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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