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Dessert

Croquantes of Almonds

A sweet almond confection made by blanching almonds, mixing with sugar, butter, lemon rind, and egg yolks, then baking and coating with syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Croquantes of Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the paste

  1. Blanch and dry the almonds in a cool oven.

  2. Once cold, pound the almonds in a mortar with the sugar.

  3. Rub the mixture through a wire sieve.

  4. Incorporate the butter, lemon rind, and beaten egg yolks to form a paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the paste and cut it into shapes.

  2. Bake the shapes in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. When done, dip them into sugar boiled to a syrup and let them dry.

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 + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 body and nutty flavour of the croquantes.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the paste and, boiled to a syrup, gives the crisp glazed coating.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the paste.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture into a paste and add richness and colour.

The step that matters

Baking the shapes. Baking at high heat for the right time browns the sugar and nuts and dries the paste so it turns crisp. Too little time leaves the shapes soft and pale, while too much can scorch the sugar and almonds.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, 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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