Skip to main content
Dessert

Orange Cheesecakes

A sweet dessert made with almonds, orange‑flower water, Seville orange, candied oranges, eggs, butter, and sugar, baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Orange Cheesecakes

Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Orange Cheesecakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Blanch the almonds.

  2. Pound the blanched almonds smooth in a mortar with orange-flower water, sugar, and butter.

  3. Boil the Seville orange, changing the water until tender; remove the seeds.

  4. Pound the boiled orange with the candied oranges until smooth.

Bake

  1. Beat the almond mixture with the orange paste, egg yolks, and egg whites until well combined.

  2. Line patty-pans with puff pastry and fill with the mixture.

  3. Bake until set and 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.

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.

  1. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Ground into a paste that gives the filling its rich, dense body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture in the filling.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Egg whites
Add lift and structure, helping the filling set lightly in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and contributes to browning in the oven.
Seville orange
Provides bitter, aromatic citrus flavour and pectin-rich pulp for the filling.

The step that matters

Baking until just set. Egg-based fillings turn grainy and weep liquid if overbaked, because the egg proteins tighten too far. Baking only until set and lightly golden keeps the texture smooth and tender.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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

More orange cheesecake recipes

Crust 9 See all 14 →

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipesOrange GelatinOrange Gelatin100 recipesOrange SherbetOrange Sherbet73 recipes