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Dessert

German Puffs

A light, airy cake made with milk, eggs, flour, baking soda, butter, and salt, baked until puffed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Puffs

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. Separate the egg yolks and whites.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks until thick and the whites until dry.

  2. Mix half the milk and half the flour into the yolks until smooth.

  3. Add the remaining milk and flour, then warm the butter and stir it in.

  4. Beat the batter until light and bubbly, then stir in the baking soda.

  5. Gently fold in the egg whites without overmixing.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter tea cups or an earthen mold, pour in the batter, and bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

  2. Serve with butter and sugar or your preferred sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites lift the batter and give the puffs their airy structure as they set.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the batter and give the puffs their body.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that turns the flour into a pourable batter and adds richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to produce gas, helping the puffs rise and brown.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the egg whites without overmixing. Whipped egg whites trap air that makes the puffs rise. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the puffs bake up dense instead of light.

“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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