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Tartlets of Almond Paste

Almond paste tartlets are baked almond paste shells filled with whipped cream or jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Tartlets of Almond Paste

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tartlets of Almond Paste

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the shells

  1. Preheat your oven to 300 °F (150 °C).

  2. Butter the smallest‑sized patty pans and line them with rolled almond paste, as thin as possible.

  3. Cut the almond paste close to the edges of the pans with a sharp knife.

Dry and finish

  1. Dry the tartlets slowly in the cool oven until they are crisp and pale brown.

  2. Remove the tartlets from the pans when two‑thirds done and place them upside down on a sheet of paper.

  3. Return them to the oven for further drying.

  4. At serving time, fill them with whipped cream or jam, and decorate with a small star cut from the almond paste.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Butter + sugartop 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

Almond paste
Forms the thin crisp shell and provides the nutty almond flavour of the tartlet.
Butter
Greases the patty pans so the thin almond paste releases cleanly after drying.
Whipped cream or peach/apricot jam
Fills the crisp shells, adding moisture and sweetness that contrast with the dry paste.

The step that matters

Drying the tartlets slowly. A low oven dries the thin almond paste gradually so it becomes crisp without browning too fast or puffing. Removing them at two-thirds done and drying them upside down helps them set evenly and keeps the base flat.

“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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