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Dessert

Chocolate Macaroons

A sweet treat made from chocolate, powdered sugar, almonds, cinnamon, and egg whites, baked into small cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the grated chocolate, powdered sugar, ground almonds, and cinnamon in a bowl.

  2. Add the beaten egg whites and mix to form a soft paste.

Bake and finish

  1. Drop half teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto slightly buttered parchment paper.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  3. Let cool completely before removing from the paper.

  4. Brush the underside with cold water to easily strip off the paper.

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. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + cinnamontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Egg whites
Whipped whites give the paste its lift and bind the ground almonds and sugar into a soft, set structure.
Blanched almonds
Ground almonds supply the body and chewy texture of the macaroon.
Powdered sugar
Fine sugar sweetens the mixture and helps it dry and set in the oven.
Chocolate
Grated chocolate provides the main flavour and deep colour of the macaroons.

The step that matters

Let cool completely before removing from the paper. The macaroons are still soft and fragile when hot. Cooling lets the sugar and egg proteins firm up, so they hold their shape and release cleanly.

“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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