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Dessert

Cream Puffs

A light pastry filled with a sweet milk and egg custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cream Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan with the water and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the flour while boiling and stir until combined.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

  4. Once cool, stir in the eggs one at a time without beating.

  5. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, heat the milk and one egg in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the sugar and cornstarch, and cook until thickened.

  3. Add vanilla extract and a small lump of butter to the filling.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

All-purpose flour
Builds the structure that holds the puffs' hollow shape.
Eggs
Bind the dough, and their moisture turns to steam that lifts the puffs.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Milk
Gives the filling a creamy, soft body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it heats.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling.

The step that matters

Stir in the eggs gradually. Add the eggs one at a time without beating, and only once the dough has cooled. Hot dough can scramble the eggs, and the dough needs enough egg to hold its shape and puff in the oven.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, milk, 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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