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Dessert

Bakewell Pudding

A sweet almond and jam layered pastry baked with butter and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Bakewell Pudding

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.

Prepare the base

  1. Blanch the almonds and boil them in the milk for ten minutes.

  2. Pound the almonds to a smooth paste.

  3. Cut the French roll into thin slices without crust and pour the milk over them.

Assemble

  1. Butter a pie dish and lay the bread slices as a lining.

  2. Spread a thick layer of jam over the bread.

Make the filling and bake

  1. Dissolve the butter and stir in the almond paste.

  2. Add the butter, yolks, and whites of the eggs, and beat well for 15 minutes.

  3. Pour the mixture over the jam and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 50 to 60 minutes.

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. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks and whites set the custard and give the filling its structure and richness.
Sweet almonds
Ground into a paste, they add nutty flavour and a moist, tender body to the filling.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture in the filling.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown during baking.
French roll
Soaked in milk, it forms a soft base that absorbs the filling.
Milk
Softens the bread and adds moisture to the custard-like filling.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs and butter for 15 minutes. Beating incorporates air and blends the eggs evenly with the fat and almond paste, so the filling bakes smooth rather than curdled or grainy.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Cocoafits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, egg. 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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