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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made with light brown sugar, milk, molasses, butter, and Baker's chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine light brown sugar, milk, molasses, and butter.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring until it reaches a boil.

  3. Add the Baker's chocolate and stir until melted and well combined.

  4. Continue to cook until the mixture thickens, then remove from heat.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into pans and let cool until nearly set.

  2. Cut into squares and serve.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Light brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the soft, chewy body of the caramel.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk solids that help form a creamy, chewy texture.
Molasses
Adds depth, dark colour and extra moisture to the caramel.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and richer mouthfeel.
Baker's chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and firms the caramel as it cools.

The step that matters

Cooking until the mixture thickens. Sugar and milk must be cooked long enough to thicken, since undercooking leaves caramels soft and sticky, while overcooking makes them hard. Stirring prevents scorching on the base of the pan.

“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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