Skip to main content
Dessert

Beignets De Pommes

Apple beignets are fried apple slices coated in flour, served hot with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Beignets De Pommes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel the apples, remove the seeds, and cut them into round slices.

  2. Soak the apple slices in a mixture of brandy, lemon juice, and powdered sugar.

  3. Drain the slices and dust them with flour.

Fry and serve

  1. In a chafing dish, heat the butter until very hot.

  2. Fry the apple slices on both sides until golden.

  3. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon, then serve hot.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Apples
Provide the main body and tart flavor of the beignets.
Flour
Dusting forms a light coating that helps the slices brown when fried.
Butter
Fat for frying that carries heat to the slices and adds browning and richness.
Brandy
Soaking adds aroma and flavor to the apple slices.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface caramelize for a golden finish.

The step that matters

Fry the apple slices on both sides until golden. Butter must be very hot before the slices go in, or they absorb fat and turn greasy instead of browning. Well-dried, floured slices also brown more evenly and crisp better.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, brandy, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, brandy, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon. 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes