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Dessert

German Puffs

German Puffs are sweet, airy pastries made with milk, flour, butter, eggs, and a citrusy sugar glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the sweet milk, flour, melted butter, and 3 egg yolks.

  3. In another bowl, beat the reserved egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently fold the egg whites into the milk mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill buttered cups halfway with the mixture.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes until puffed and golden.

  3. For the sauce, beat the remaining egg whites until stiff, then mix in powdered sugar and juice of 2 oranges.

  4. Turn the puffs out onto a platter and cover with the sauce 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the puffs as they bake.
Flour
Starch and gluten set the batter so the puffs hold their shape after baking.
Sweet milk
Liquid that hydrates the flour and turns steam into lift during baking.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and tenderness and helps the puffs brown.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the milk mixture. Stirring instead of folding knocks out the air beaten into the whites, so the puffs rise less and turn dense.

“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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