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Dessert

Fruit Cookies

A sweet cookie made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, molasses, raisins, nuts, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Fruit Cookies

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar until well combined.

  3. Add the butter and molasses, mixing until smooth.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add it to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the raisins, nuts, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon.

Bake and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet.

  2. Sprinkle sugar on top of each cookie.

  3. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.

  4. Let cool 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the dough together.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lift the cookies and encourage browning.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda. Baking soda must be fully dissolved in the hot water before mixing, so it spreads evenly through the dough. Clumps can leave bitter pockets and uneven rising.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, molasses, raisin, ginger, clove):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, molasses, raisin, ginger, clove. 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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