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Dessert

Spice Cookies

A sweet cookie made with eggs, sugar, orange peel, lemon, flour, spices, nuts, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Spice Cookies

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spice Cookies

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the dough

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

  2. Add the grated orange peel and lemon juice, and mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and baking powder.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.

  5. Fold in the nuts.

Bake and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden.

  3. Allow to cool before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown and develop a golden color.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cookies rise and lighten.
Nuts
Add texture and a toasty, rich flavor to the cookies.

The step that matters

Stirring in the dry ingredients. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which makes the cookies tough and dense. Stir only until the flour is just combined.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, lemon, flour, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Orangethe original
  4. Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, lemon, flour, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. 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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