Skip to main content
Dessert

Hazel Nut Tarts

A sweet tart made with hazelnuts, egg yolks, and a milk-based filling, topped with a confectioner’s sugar frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Hazel Nut Tarts

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 the batter

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

  2. Mix powdered sugar and egg yolks in a bowl.

  3. Add rum, ground hazel nuts, bread crumbs, and egg whites to the mixture.

Bake the layers

  1. Divide the mixture into two layers and bake until set.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, boil milk, sugar, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in reserved hazel nuts, bread crumbs, and rum.

Make the frosting

  1. For the frosting, combine confectioner's sugar with cream until stiff.

  2. Flavor the frosting with almond or vanilla extract.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hazel nuts
Provide the main body, fat and nutty flavor of the tart.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the layers and filling a soft, tender body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
Egg whites
Set with heat to give the layers structure and lightness.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the filling, giving a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Divide the mixture into two layers and bake until set.. Egg proteins set as they heat, so the layers need to be baked just until firm. Overbaking makes the eggs tight and dry, while underbaking leaves them wet in the centre.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Cocoafits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, bread, rum, milk, butter, cream. 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.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes