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Dessert

Fairy Fancies

Small pastry rings filled with jelly or jam, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 342 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fairy Fancies

Oven, in the book's wordsA very gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll out the short crust pastry thinly and evenly.

  2. Cut out a dozen small sheets using a larger tin cutter.

  3. Use two round cutters to form rings, one 1 inch in diameter and the other half that size.

  4. Place the rings on the pastry sheets as shown in the engraving.

  5. Moisten each ring with egg white using a camel's hair brush before placing it on the pastry.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) until crisp and pale.

  2. Fill each section of the pastry with a different jelly or jam before serving.

  3. Optionally, ice and decorate with almond paste and serve with whipped cream.

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. Apricot + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

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

  2. Peach + raspberrytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together190 recipes

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

  3. Apple + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  4. Strawberry + raspberrytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, sweet).

  5. Strawberry + peachtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together228 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Short crust pastry
Forms the crisp, sturdy base that holds the rings and fillings.
Egg white
Acts as a glue that bonds each ring to the pastry sheet.
Apple jelly
Adds sweetness and fruit flavour to the filled sections.
Strawberry jelly
Adds sweetness and fruit flavour to the filled sections.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness and fruit flavour to the filled sections.
Raspberry jelly
Adds sweetness and fruit flavour to the filled sections.

The step that matters

Moistening the rings with egg white. Too little egg white lets the rings lift or slide off during baking, while too much can soak into the pastry and keep it from crisping. A thin, even brush coat holds the ring firmly in place.

“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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