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Dessert

Brandy Cream

A custard dessert made with blanched almonds, milk, egg yolks, cream, sugar, brandy, and thin cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Brandy Cream

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Brandy Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Boil the blanched almonds in milk until cold.

  2. Add the cooled almond mixture to the egg yolks beaten with cream.

Thicken

  1. Sweeten the mixture and stir in the brandy.

  2. Pour in the thin cream and mix well.

  3. Heat gently over the fire without boiling, stirring until it thickens.

Chill and serve

  1. Pour into cups or low glasses and chill before serving.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they heat and add richness and a smooth set.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, velvety texture and moisture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the cream and yolks.
Brandy
Adds a strong aroma and warm flavor to the custard.
Blanched almonds
Infused into the milk to give the custard a nutty almond flavor.
Milk
Liquid base that carries the almond flavor into the custard.

The step that matters

Heat gently without boiling. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if the mixture boils the proteins tighten too far and the custard can curdle or turn grainy. Gentle heat and steady stirring let it thicken smoothly.

“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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