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Dessert

Petits Choux a LA d’aUTOISE

A pastry made with eggs, yolks, warm cream, pounded ratafia, orange flower water, dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Petits Choux a LA d’aUTOISE

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Weigh and boil the ingredients as for petits choux.

  2. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Stir in the pounded ratafia and orange flower water, then mix in the warm cream.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop the mixture in lengths about the size of your finger onto a baking sheet.

  2. Brush the tops with egg wash and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. When nearly done, sift powdered sugar over the tops.

Glaze and serve

  1. To glaze, hold a red hot shovel over the pastries just 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.

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. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + orangetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Eggs
Build the structure of the choux dough and help it puff and set as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Add richness and tenderness, and enrich the dough's color and flavor.
Cream
Adds moisture and fat, giving the dough a softer, richer texture.
Pounded ratafia
Contributes a distinct almond-like aroma and flavor to the dough.
Orange flower water
Adds a delicate floral aroma that complements the ratafia.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs gradually. Each egg must be fully mixed in before the next is added so the dough becomes smooth and glossy. Adding them too fast can leave the dough too loose or split it, so it may not hold its shape or puff well in the oven.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, sugar. 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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