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Dessert

Genoese Pastry

A sweet baked pastry made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, and topped with chocolate icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Genoese Pastry

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter with the castor sugar until creamy.

  2. Add one egg and continue beating until smooth.

  3. Add the remaining three eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  4. Quickly mix in the flour and baking powder.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered tin, spreading it to a thickness of half an inch.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 8 to 10 minutes.

  3. Once done, turn the pastry upside down to cool.

  4. Spread with chocolate icing and place in the oven for 1 minute to set.

  5. Cut into pieces when cold.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the sponge a light, tender structure and rich flavour.
Eggs
Provide structure and lift as they set in the oven, holding the sponge together.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten and starch framework that sets the cake's crumb once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the batter rise and become airy.
Castor sugar
Helps trap air when creamed with butter and adds sweetness and gentle browning.

The step that matters

Quickly mix in the flour and baking powder. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten and deflates the air beaten into the eggs and butter, making the sponge tough and dense rather than light.

“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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