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Dessert

Chocolate Macaroons

Chocolate macaroons made with chocolate, almonds, sugar, egg white, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Chocolate Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Line a baking pan with white paper and butter the paper.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the chocolate and ground almonds together.

  2. Stir in the sugar.

  3. Beat the egg white until stiff.

  4. Fold the beaten egg white into the mixture.

  5. Add the vanilla and cinnamon.

  6. Gently stir in the corn starch.

Bake

  1. Drop half a teaspoon of the mixture onto the paper, spaced one inch apart.

  2. Bake for 45 minutes or until the macaroons are hard and dry.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground almonds
Provides the bulk and main structure of the macaroons.
Egg white
Its whipped foam traps air, giving the macaroons lift and a light interior.
Chocolate
Supplies the main flavour and some fat, adding richness and depth.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the macaroons dry and set as they bake.
Corn starch
Stabilises the batter and keeps the texture tender rather than crumbly.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg white. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whipped egg white. Stirring hard deflates the foam, so the macaroons bake up dense and flat.

“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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