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Dessert

Filbert Tartlets

A sweet tartlet filled with a hazelnut and almond custard baked in pastry shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Hazelnut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 186 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Filbert Tartlets

twelve tartlets
Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Blanch and peel the filberts, then chop them finely.

  2. Mix the cornstarch smoothly with the milk and heat until it thickens.

  3. Cream the egg yolks and caster sugar together until thick and smooth.

  4. Add the chopped nuts and ground almonds to the egg mixture, then stir in the thickened milk.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the mixture into twelve tartlet shells lined with pastry dough.

  2. Add two thin strips of pastry across each tartlet, brush with milk, and sprinkle with caster sugar.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about twenty 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. Hazelnut + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together186 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Filbert + almondtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  4. Filbert + hazelnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Filbert + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the filling as they set and add richness and colour.
Filberts (hazelnuts)
Chopped nuts add flavour and a slightly rich, grainy body to the filling.
Ground almonds
Ground almonds add body and moisture, giving the filling a tender, soft texture.
Cornstarch
Cornstarch thickens the milk so the filling holds its shape when baked.
Caster sugar
Sugar sweetens the filling and, sprinkled on top, helps the crust brown.
Cream or milk
Milk thickened with cornstarch gives the filling its smooth, creamy base.

The step that matters

Thickening the milk with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be mixed smoothly into the milk and heated until it thickens. Heating starch in liquid gelatinizes it, which sets the custard; if lumps form or it is not heated enough, the filling will stay thin or grainy.

Swap the filbert

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (hazelnut, almond, sugar, egg, cream):

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Brazil nutfits better
  3. Cashew nutfits better
  4. Filbertthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against hazelnut, almond, sugar, egg, cream. 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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