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Dessert

Rolled Oats Macaroons

A sweet baked treat made with rolled oats, butter, sugar, eggs, baking powder, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Oats and almond work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 552 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Rolled Oats Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Mix the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

  3. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  4. Combine the baking powder with the rolled oats.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites and the Ratifia or almond extract.

Bake

  1. Grease a baking pan well.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture 1 inch apart on the pan.

  3. Bake until golden, about 10-12 minutes.

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. Oats + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

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

  3. Butter + oatstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 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

Butter
Adds fat that makes the cookies tender and rich in flavor.
White sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown as they bake.
Eggs
Bind the dough, and the whites folded in add air that helps lift.
Rolled oats
Provide the bulk and chewy texture of the macaroons.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the macaroons rise and stay light.
Ratifia or bitter almond extract
Adds the characteristic almond aroma that defines the flavor.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites. Stirring vigorously deflates them, which reduces the lift the macaroons get in the oven.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Flaxseedfits less well
  4. Peasfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, oats. 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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