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Dessert

Almond Castles

Almond Castles are almond flour cakes baked or steamed with butter, egg yolks, brandy, saccharine, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Castles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the saccharine in 1 teaspoon of water.

  2. Beat the butter until creamy, then mix in the egg yolks until smooth.

  3. Add the brandy, dissolved saccharine, and almond flour.

  4. Gently fold in the stiffly whipped egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into well-buttered dariole molds.

  2. Bake or steam for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with diabetic German sauce or plain.

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. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Almond flour
Provides the bulk and nutty body that gives the castles their structure.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lightens the batter and helps it rise.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify with the butter, giving a smooth, tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and a rich flavor.
Saccharine
Provides sweetness without sugar.
Brandy
Adds aromatic flavor to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold the air that lightens the batter. Stirring or folding them hard knocks that air out, so the castles bake up dense instead of light. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain.

“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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