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Dessert

Apple-cakes

Apple cakes are short pastry squares filled with sliced apples and sugar, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple-cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack 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 pastry into a thin square.

  2. Spread the pastry on a baking sheet.

  3. Cut it straight on the sides.

  4. Pinch the edges to form a rim.

  5. Sprinkle sugar over the surface.

Add the apples

  1. Peel and core the apples.

  2. Slice the apples.

  3. Arrange the apple slices in rows on the pastry, leaning them against each other.

  4. Sprinkle fine sugar over the apples.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 35 minutes.

  2. Once cooled, cut the cakes into long squares.

  3. Sprinkle with fine sugar.

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. Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Sugar and apple barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Short pastry
Forms the base and holds the apples while it bakes, turning crisp and flaky.
Apples
Provide the main filling, becoming tender and sweet-tart as they bake.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the exposed surface brown lightly in the oven.

“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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