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Dessert

Almond and Chocolate Icing

A sweet almond and chocolate icing made by blending ground almonds, melted chocolate, sugar, butter, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond and Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds and grind them finely.

  2. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a saucepan over low heat.

Make the icing

  1. In a bowl, combine the ground almonds, melted chocolate mixture, sugar, and raw egg, and mix until smooth and well combined.

  2. Spread the icing on your cake or leave to cool and roll out for decorations.

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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

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

  5. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main bulk and nutty flavour of the icing once ground.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, more intense almond aroma to the icing.
Vanilla-flavored chocolate
Gives the icing its rich body, flavour and firmness as it cools.
Fine sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the icing hold a smooth, spreadable texture.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a glossy, tender texture.
Raw egg
Binds the ground almonds and chocolate together into a cohesive mixture.

The step that matters

Melt the chocolate and butter over low heat. Chocolate scorches and seizes if overheated, becoming grainy and dull. Gentle, low heat melts it evenly so it blends smoothly into the icing.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Macadamia nutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, chocolate, sugar, butter, egg. 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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