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Dessert

Tartlets of Almond Paste

Tartlets made from almond paste, butter, and sugar, baked until crisp, then filled with whipped cream or jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Tartlets of Almond Paste

Why it works: Peach and apricot 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 ↓

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 the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Butter the smallest-sized patty pans.

  3. Roll the almond paste as thin as possible.

  4. Line the pans with the rolled almond paste.

  5. Cut the paste close to the edges of the pans.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake the tartlets slowly until they are crisp but pale brown.

  2. Remove the tartlets from the pans when two-thirds done.

  3. Place the tartlets upside down on paper.

  4. Return the tartlets to the oven to finish drying.

  5. Fill the tartlets with whipped cream or jam before serving.

  6. If using jam, 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. Peach + apricottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

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

  2. Almond + peachtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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 gives the tartlets their nutty almond flavour.
Butter
Greases the patty pans so the delicate shells release cleanly.
Whipped cream
Adds a light, soft filling that contrasts with the crisp shell.
Peach jam
Adds sweetness and fruit flavour as an alternative filling.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness and fruit flavour as an alternative filling.

The step that matters

Baking the tartlets slowly. Almond paste is rich in sugar and oil and browns quickly. A slow, low oven dries the thin shells to a crisp texture while keeping them pale, rather than scorching them before they set.

“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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