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Dessert

German Puffs

A light, airy cake baked in cups, made with milk, eggs, flour, baking soda, butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Puffs

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.

Make the batter

  1. Separate the egg yolks and whites.

  2. Beat the yolks until thick and the whites until dry.

  3. Add half the milk and half the flour to the yolks, stirring until smooth.

  4. Add the remaining milk and flour.

  5. Warm the butter and stir it into the batter.

  6. Beat until light and bubbly.

  7. Stir in the baking soda.

  8. Gently fold in the egg whites without overmixing.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter tea cups or an earthen mold.

  2. Pour in the batter.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.

  4. Serve with butter and sugar or your preferred sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Whites trapped by beating and folded in provide lift and an airy, hollow structure.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the batter's structure as the puffs bake.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and turns steam into puffing during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to release gas that helps the puffs rise and open up.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the egg whites without overmixing.. Whipped egg whites hold the air that makes the puffs rise. Overmixing knocks that air out of the batter, so the puffs bake up flat and dense.

“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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