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Dessert

Chocolate Puffs

Chocolate puffs are small, airy cakes made from beaten egg whites, powdered sugar, and chocolate, baked briefly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar.

  3. Finely scrape the chocolate and dredge it with flour to prevent oiling.

  4. Mix the chocolate into the egg and sugar mixture, stirring well.

Shape the puffs

  1. Line a square tin pan with a sheet of fine white paper.

  2. Place thin spots of powdered sugar on the paper, about the size of a half dollar.

  3. Spoon a portion of the mixture onto each spot, smoothing it with a spoon or knife dipped in cold water.

  4. Sift powdered sugar over the top of each mound.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes.

  2. Once cool, loosen the puffs from the paper with a broad knife.

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 + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Chocolate + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff foam that gives the puffs their light, airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and firms the mixture as it sets.
Flour
Lightly coats the chocolate so its pieces separate and stay evenly distributed in the batter.

The step that matters

Finely scrape the chocolate and dredge it with flour. Chocolate that is finely grated and coated with flour disperses evenly and is less likely to separate or leave oily streaks in the batter, which would weaken the foam and affect texture.

“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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