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Dessert

Almond Biscuit

A sweet biscuit made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs, almonds, milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Biscuit

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, rub together the butter, sugar, and flour until well combined.

  2. Add the pounded almonds, milk, eggs, and baking soda to the mixture.

  3. Knead the dough until it is smooth and fine.

  4. Let the dough rest in a cool place for a short time.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough into thin sheets and cut with a round cutter.

  2. Prick the biscuits with a fork and place them on slightly buttered baking sheets.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until 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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the biscuit together as it bakes.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour through the dough.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the biscuits brown as they bake.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the baked biscuits.
Sweet and bitter almonds
Contribute nutty aroma and flavour, along with body from the ground nuts.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough to help it rise and spread lightly while baking.

The step that matters

Let the dough rest in a cool place. Resting firms the butter and lets the flour hydrate, which makes the dough easier to roll thinly and keeps the cut biscuits from spreading out of shape in the oven.

“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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