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Dessert

Brandy Snaps

A sweet, dense cookie made with molasses, lard, butter, eggs, water, brandy, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,127 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Brandy Snaps

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mix all ingredients the night before baking.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Bake and cool

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Molasses + brandytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together721 recipes
  5. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture, and caramelizes as it bakes.
Lard and butter
Supplies fat that keeps the snaps tender and helps them spread thin.
Eggs
Add structure and help bind the batter together.
Baking soda
Lifts the batter slightly and aids browning.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. The sugars in the molasses caramelize as they bake, and that color shows the snaps are cooked. Underbaked snaps stay soft and chewy, while overbaked ones turn bitter and brittle. They crisp further as they cool.

“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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