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Dessert

Washington Biscuits

A sweet biscuit made with egg yolks, sugar, almonds, rum, cornflour, egg whites, flour, apricot jam, and transparent icing flavored with curaçao.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Washington Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar, almonds, and rum until well combined.

  2. Add the cornflour and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.

  4. Gently mix in the finely-sifted flour.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into small round buttered biscuit tins.

  2. Bake in a moderately quick oven (350°F / 175°C) until done.

  3. Spread apricot jam over each biscuit and dip in transparent icing flavored with curaçao.

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. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Rum + apricottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped until stiff, they trap air and give the biscuits a light, airy structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, and help bind the batter for a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure once set by heat, holding the biscuit shape.
Cornflour
Lightens the crumb and softens texture, since it contains little gluten.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Sweet almonds
Add fat, flavour and a moist, tender texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whites must be beaten until stiff but folded in gently, otherwise the air they hold collapses and the biscuits bake up dense rather than light.

Swap the apricot

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

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

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