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Dessert

Vanilla Cookies

A simple cookie made with sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream of tartar, baking soda, and vanilla extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Vanilla Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter until smooth.

  2. Add the egg and milk, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the cream of tartar, baking soda, and vanilla extract.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough as thin as possible.

  2. Sprinkle sugar over the rolled dough and cut out shapes with a small fancy cutter.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes until lightly 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Creams with the sugar to add richness and a tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and adds crispness on the sugared top.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic ingredients to help the cookies rise and brown.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that works with baking soda to lighten the dough.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough as thin as possible. Thin dough bakes quickly and evenly, so the cookies turn crisp and lightly golden before they dry out or overbake. Thick dough stays soft in the middle and browns unevenly.

“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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