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Dessert

Fairy Fancies

A short crust pastry filled with preserves and decorated with rings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 342 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fairy Fancies

Oven, in the book's wordsA very gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll out the short crust pastry thinly and evenly.

  2. Cut out a dozen or more small sheets using a larger tin cutter.

  3. Use two round cutters to form rings, one about 1 inch in diameter and the other half that size.

  4. Place the rings on the pastry sheets as shown in the engraving.

  5. Moisten each ring with egg white using a camel's hair brush before placing it on the pastry.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) until crisp and pale.

  2. Fill each section of the pastry with a different preserve: apple jelly, strawberry jelly, apricot jam, and raspberry jelly.

  3. Ice the pastry.

Decorate and serve

  1. Decorate with white almond paste and colored rings before serving.

  2. Fill with well-drained whipped cream just 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. Apricot + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

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

  2. Peach + raspberrytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together190 recipes

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

  3. Apple + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  4. Strawberry + raspberrytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, sweet).

  5. Strawberry + peachtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together228 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Short crust pastry
Forms the crisp, sturdy base that holds the fillings.
Egg white
Glues the pastry rings in place and helps them brown and crisp in the oven.
Apple jelly
Adds sweetness and a glossy, set filling to the pastry sections.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness and a fruity, slightly tart flavor to the pastry sections.
Whipped cream
Adds a light, soft texture and richness when used as a filling.

The step that matters

Bake in a gentle oven until crisp and pale. Pastry baked too hot browns before it dries through, so it can turn dark or stay soft inside. A gentle oven dries and sets the pastry evenly, keeping it crisp and pale enough to hold the fillings without spreading or burning.

“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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