Skip to main content
Dessert

Ratafia Pudding

A rich pudding made with blanched almonds, rose water, ratafia cakes, eggs, cream, white wine, and sugar, baked in a puff pastry-lined dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Ratafia Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Pound the almonds with rose water until smooth.

  2. Mix in the ratafia cakes until well combined.

  3. Add the egg yolks and beat them well.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the mixture.

  2. Stir in the cream, white wine, and sugar until fully incorporated.

Bake

  1. Line a baking dish with puff paste.

  2. Pour the mixture into the lined dish.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 45 minutes.

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

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

  2. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cream + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

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

  5. Rose + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together162 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped until stiff, they lighten the mixture and help it rise and set with air.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture as it bakes and sets.
Ratafia cakes
Provide the main almond-and-bitter-fruit flavour and some body to the pudding.
Thick cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a soft, smooth texture once baked.
Blanched sweet almonds
Pounded into a paste, they add nutty flavour and body to the base.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiff egg whites. Overmixing knocks air out of the whipped whites, so the pudding bakes denser and rises less. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain.

“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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes