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Dessert

Apple Shortcake

A layered cake made of dough sheets with warm apple sauce, sugar, butter, cinnamon, served with cold cream or rich milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Shortcake

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 dough

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

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Rub the butter into the flour mixture.

  4. Add enough sweet milk to form a soft dough.

  5. Divide the dough into three equal parts and roll each part out.

Layer and bake

  1. Place the first sheet in a greased pan and lightly grease the top with butter.

  2. Add the second sheet, grease it, and then add the last sheet of dough.

  3. Bake until done.

Fill and serve

  1. Once baked, separate the sheets and spread warm apple sauce seasoned with sugar, butter, and cinnamon between them.

  2. Serve warm with cold cream or rich milk.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the layers together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the layers rise and become light.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and richness to the layers.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough comes together and bakes through.
Apple sauce
Adds moisture and fruity sweetness between the baked layers.

The step that matters

Separate the sheets while the apple sauce is warm. The baked layers are fragile and need to be split cleanly before filling. Warm apple sauce spreads evenly and soaks slightly into the dough, so the filling settles well between the layers.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sauce, sugar, cinnamon, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, sauce, sugar, cinnamon, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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