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Dessert

Bakewell Pudding

A sweet pudding made with puff pastry, preserves, butter, sugar, eggs, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and almond 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 ↓

Bakewell Pudding

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.

Prepare

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

  2. Line a shallow pudding dish with puff pastry.

  3. Fill the dish half an inch deep with preserves.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until well combined.

  2. Add the egg yolks and almond extract, and beat well.

  3. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

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

  5. Pour the mixture over the preserves in the dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until set and golden.

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. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 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

Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, flaky base that holds the filling in the dish.
Preserves
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity beneath the custard layer.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the creamed base of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps cream the butter into a light base.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the filling set during baking.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the filling and add structure as it bakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that gives lightness. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves a dense, flat filling.

Swap the almond

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

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

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