Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pastry Sandwiches
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.
Prepare
Roll out the puff-paste thinly.
Place half of it on a baking sheet and spread your choice of jam evenly over it.
Cover with another layer of thin puff-paste, pressing the edges together.
Mark the surface with a knife to indicate where to cut after baking.
Bake and glaze
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes to ½ hour.
A few minutes before done, remove from the oven, brush with egg white, sprinkle with sifted sugar, and return to the oven to color.
Cut and serve
Once cooled, cut into 2-inch strips and arrange in a pyramid on a dish.
Serve with flavored whipped cream poured in the center.
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.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Puff-paste
- Forms the flaky, layered pastry that puffs and crisps around the filling.
- Jam
- Adds sweetness and fruity flavor, and moisture that softens the filling as it bakes.
- Egg white
- Brushed on top, it helps the surface brown and gives a glossy finish.
- Sifted sugar
- Sprinkled on top, it caramelizes in the oven for sweetness and a crisp, colored crust.
The step that matters
Brushing with egg white and adding sugar near the end of baking. Added too early, the sugar can burn before the pastry is cooked through; added too late, the top will not color well. Timing it a few minutes before done lets the surface brown and caramelize while the pastry stays crisp.
“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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