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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made with molasses, milk, sugars, butter, flour, vanilla, and chocolate.

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

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine molasses, milk, white sugar, brown sugar, and butter.

  2. Mix flour with the milk before adding it to the pot.

  3. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Add vanilla and chocolate when nearly done, stirring until melted.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Molasses
Adds deep flavor and a dark color, and keeps the caramels soft and chewy.
White sugar
Provides sweetness and helps the mixture caramelize as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture and a richer, toffee-like flavor to the caramel.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and rich flavor.
Flour
Thickens the mixture so the caramel sets firm rather than runny.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and fat, and melts into the caramel for richness.

The step that matters

Boiling the mixture for 20 minutes. Cooking the sugars to the right point controls firmness. Too little boiling leaves the caramels soft and sticky, while too much makes them hard. Stirring keeps the sugars from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

“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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