Skip to main content
Dessert

Molasses Chocolate Chips

Molasses chocolate chips are made by dissolving sugar and chocolate in vinegar, then adding molasses, butter, baking soda, and vanilla.

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

Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Molasses Chocolate Chips

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Pour the vinegar over the grated chocolate and sugar; let it stand at room temperature to dissolve slowly without heating.

  2. Once the sugar is melted, add it to the molasses and cook uncovered, stirring often until it spins a thread from the top of a spoon.

  3. Stir in the butter and the baking soda dissolved in hot water.

  4. Flavor with vanilla to taste and pour onto buttered platters to harden.

Set and cut

  1. As it sets, cut into chips or bars with a buttered knife.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Forms the base of the candy and gives it its dark color and deep flavor.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the candy set firm when cooked to a thread stage.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and richness to the candy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps dissolve the sugar and keeps the candy from crystallizing.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid to lighten the candy's texture as it is stirred in.

The step that matters

Cooking to the thread stage. Cook until the syrup spins a thread from a spoon. Stop too early and the candy stays soft; cook too long and it becomes hard and brittle. The stage controls the final texture.

“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

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipes