Why it works: Nuts and chocolate work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 440 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Chocolate 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
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Make the dough
Fold in the powdered sugar and chopped nuts.
Melt the Baker's chocolate and mix it in.
Add flour gradually until the mixture thickens.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto greased baking sheets.
Bake
Bake until set, about 10-12 minutes.
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.
-
Nuts + chocolatetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together440 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Nuts + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the cookies lift and an airy, light structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and dissolves readily into the whipped whites for a smooth batter.
- Chopped nuts
- Add texture and crunch against the soft interior of the cookie.
- Baker's chocolate
- Provides chocolate flavor and color, and adds richness and fat to the batter.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture so the spoonfuls hold their shape instead of spreading.
The step that matters
Add flour gradually until the mixture thickens. Flour sets the structure, and adding it too quickly or in too large an amount can make the cookies dense and tough. Stopping once the batter thickens keeps the whipped egg white structure light.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, chocolate, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, chocolate, flour. 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.
You might also like
Chocolate Cream171 recipes
Chocolate Fudge55 recipes
Chocolate Drop Cookies50 recipes
Chocolate Cake32 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.