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Dessert

German Puffs

A sweet batter puff baked and topped with a whipped egg white and orange sugar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Puffs

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.

Make the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, mix the sweet milk, flour, melted butter, and 3 whole eggs.

  3. Butter cups and fill them halfway with the mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20 minutes until puffed and golden.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, beat the reserved egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. In another bowl, combine the powdered sugar and juice of 2 oranges.

  3. Turn the baked puffs onto a platter and cover with the sauce 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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs
Provide structure and, as whipped whites, air that helps the puffs rise.
Flour
Gives the batter body so the puffs hold their shape after baking.
Sweet milk
Supplies the liquid that turns to steam in the oven, helping the puffs rise.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat that contributes to a tender texture and golden color.
Powdered sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves easily into the orange juice.
Orange juice (in the method)
Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Fill the cups only halfway. The batter needs room to rise in the hot oven. Overfilling can cause it to spill over and bake unevenly, while the steam from the milk and eggs lifts the puffs as they set.

“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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