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Dessert

French Candies

A confection made from egg whites, sugar, and various nuts, dates, and coconut, rolled into shapes and coated with chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

French Candies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Combine egg whites, cold water, and vanilla extract in a bowl, stirring well.

  2. Gradually add confectioner's sugar while stirring with a silver spoon until well mixed.

  3. Knead additional sugar into a portion of the mixture on a floured surface until firm.

Shape the candies

  1. Roll out the mixture to ½ inch thick and cut into small pieces with a silver knife.

  2. Shape pieces into balls and set aside to harden for chocolate drops.

  3. For walnut candies, shape pieces around halves of walnuts.

  4. For almond candies, roll pieces around almonds and coat in granulated sugar.

  5. Fill stoned dates with the dough and roll in granulated sugar.

  6. Knead grated coconut into another portion of the dough, roll, and cut into squares.

  7. Chop broken nut pieces, mix with coconut, mold into dough, and cut into squares.

Coat and finish

  1. Melt half a cake of Baker's chocolate gently without boiling.

  2. Dip the reserved balls into the melted chocolate using a silver fork and place on paper to harden.

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. Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

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

  2. Walnut + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Coconut + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Bind the sugar into a firm, pliable dough that holds its shape.
Confectioner's sugar
Provides the bulk and sweetness of the candy dough, setting it firm when kneaded.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, chewy texture and flavour to the coconut candies.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavour to the walnut candies.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavour to the almond candies.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vanilla, sugar, coconut, walnut, almond):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vanilla, sugar, coconut, walnut, almond. 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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