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Dessert

Apple Sandwich

A pastry sandwich with apple, currant, and cinnamon filling baked to a golden crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Sandwich

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.

Prepare the dough

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

  2. Rub the butter into the flour, then add the baking powder.

  3. Make a firm dough by adding water as needed.

  4. Roll out the dough to the required thickness.

Make the filling

  1. Mince the apples, currants, and lemon peel, then mix with cinnamon, lemon juice, and sugar.

  2. Add the egg to the mixture and combine well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the filling between two layers of pastry and bake 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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, flaky texture.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dough once combined with liquid.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the pastry rises and lightens.
Apples
Provide moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness of the filling.
Egg
Binds the filling together and helps it set when baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pastry brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough to the required thickness. Dough that is too thick may stay doughy inside before the outside browns, while dough that is too thin can tear or dry out. Even thickness helps the pastry bake through and turn golden at the same rate.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, apple, lemon, cinnamon, egg, 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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