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Dessert

Sweet Paste for Timbales

A sweet pastry paste made from flour, sugar, eggs, yolks, and butter, used to line molds for timbales.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sweet Paste for Timbales

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the paste

  1. Mix together the flour, powdered sugar, whole eggs, egg yolks, and butter until well combined into a paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Butter the outside of a scull shape or croquante mold.

  2. Roll out the paste and lay it on the mold, trimming off any excess.

  3. Brush the paste with egg and prick it all over with a fork.

  4. Place the mold on a baking sheet with a little burning charcoal underneath.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until light in color.

  6. Bake some of the same paste in a tart pan to match the mold.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once the bottom paste is baked and removed from the tin, fill it with prepared fruit and place the scull shape on top.

  2. This paste can also be used to cut out edible ornaments.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the paste together as it bakes.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and fine texture to the paste.
Whole eggs
Bind the paste and help it set firm in the oven.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the paste brown as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Baking until light in color. The paste should be baked only until lightly colored; over-baking dries it and makes it brittle, while under-baking leaves it soft and unable to hold its shape in the mold.

“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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