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Dessert

Almond Cheese Cakes

A baked almond-based cake with a smooth almond paste filling and almond topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Cheese Cakes

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.

Prepare

  1. Reduce sweet and bitter almonds to a paste.

  2. Mix the almond paste with loaf sugar, egg whites, egg yolk, and soft butter, then beat the mixture well until smooth.

Bake

  1. Fill tart shells with the mixture.

  2. Top with a few cut pieces of almonds.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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 + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet and bitter almonds
Form the bulk of the filling, giving a rich nutty flavor and body.
Egg whites
Add structure and help the filling set as it bakes.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the filling and give it a tender texture.
Soft butter
Contributes fat for moisture and a tender crumb.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until set, not overbaked. Egg proteins set as they heat, so the filling firms up in the oven. Baking too long makes the eggs tighten and turn dry and rubbery, while underbaking leaves it runny in the center.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Filbertfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter. 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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