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Dessert

Bitter-almond Biscuits

A biscuit made with bitter almonds, flour, sugar, butter, and egg whites, baked until lightly golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bitter-almond Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Blanch and finely chop the bitter almonds.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and butter until well combined.

Mix and shape

  1. Whisk the egg whites to a strong froth and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Drop small amounts of the batter onto a buttered baking sheet.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 10 to 12 minutes until small and lightly golden.

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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Bitter almonds
Provides the characteristic bitter almond aroma and flavor of the biscuits.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the biscuits together as they bake.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the biscuits brown lightly in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the dough.
Egg whites
Whipped to a froth, they lighten the batter and help the biscuits rise and set.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that lightens the batter. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so the biscuits spread flat and turn dense instead of light.

“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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