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Dessert

Tartlets of Almond Paste

Tartlets made from rolled almond paste, baked until crisp, filled with whipped cream or jam, and decorated with a star cut from almond paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Tartlets of Almond Paste

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 ↓

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. Butter the smallest-sized patty pans.

  2. Line the pans with rolled almond paste, as thin as possible.

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

Bake

  1. Bake in a very cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until pale brown and crisp.

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

  3. Place the tartlets upside down on a sheet of paper.

  4. Return them to the oven to finish baking.

Fill and serve

  1. At serving time, fill the tartlets with whipped cream or jam.

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

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

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

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

  3. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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 browns into a firm, delicate case when baked.
Whipped cream or peach/apricot jam
Fills the baked shells, adding moisture and sweetness that contrast with the crisp paste.

The step that matters

Removing the tartlets from the pans at two-thirds baked. The paste is still soft at this point, so it can be lifted out and turned upside down without tearing. Once fully set it bonds to the metal and breaks. Turning them back over lets the bottoms finish crisping.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. 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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