Skip to main content
Dessert

Genoese Pastry

A sweet pastry made with butter, sugar, eggs, brandy, and candied orange peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Brandy and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,706 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Genoese Pastry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Warm the butter and beat it until creamy.

  2. Mix in the caster sugar and whip together.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Add the chopped candied orange or citron-peel and brandy.

Bake and cut

  1. Spread the mixture over a baking sheet and level it off with a knife.

  2. Bake until done, then cut into shapes with tin cutters.

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. Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture when beaten until creamy.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps trap air when whipped with the butter.
Eggs
Add structure and lift as they set in the oven.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the batter.
Candied orange or citron peel
Adds sweetness, citrus flavour and texture to the pastry.

The step that matters

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets each one emulsify fully into the butter and sugar, keeping the batter smooth and airy so it bakes evenly rather than splitting or turning dense.

Swap the orange

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

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

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

You might also like

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