Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Cream Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the sugar and sour cream until well combined.
Add the baking soda and lemon extract, stirring until incorporated.
Gradually add flour until a soft dough forms.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until lightly golden.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as the dough sets.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acid to produce gas that lifts and lightens the cookies.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown lightly in the oven.
- Lemon extract
- Adds a bright citrus aroma that comes through the baked flavor.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until a soft dough forms. Adding too much flour or overworking the dough develops gluten and dries the mixture, making the cookies tough and dense. Stop once the dough is soft and holds together.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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