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Frosted Creams

A sweet molasses cookie with a frosted icing made from egg white and sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Frosted Creams

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine molasses, shortening, water with dissolved baking soda, ginger, and eggs.

  2. Knead in enough flour to make a dough that can be rolled out easily.

Cut and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut it into squares the size of soda crackers using the back of a knife.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

Make the icing and finish

  1. For the icing, beat the egg white to stiff froth.

  2. In a saucepan, boil white sugar with water until it reaches a thread stage.

  3. Slowly stir the syrup into the egg froth while continuously stirring.

  4. Beat the mixture until it cools, then spread it on the cooled squares.

  5. Once removed from the oven, frost slightly with icing.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Molasses
Provides dark colour, moisture and a rich, sweet, spiced flavour.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lighten the dough and help it rise and brown.
Shortening
Adds fat for tenderness and a soft, moist crumb.
Egg white
Whipped to a stiff froth to give the icing its light, airy structure.
White sugar
Cooked with water into a syrup that sets the icing and adds sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the syrup to the egg white. The hot syrup must be poured in slowly while beating constantly. Pouring too fast or stopping to stir lets the syrup cook the egg white unevenly, causing lumps and a collapsed, grainy frosting instead of a smooth, stable foam.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, egg, flour, sugar. 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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