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Dessert

Chocolate Kisses

Chocolate kisses are a sweet treat made from sugar, egg whites, and cocoa, baked until dry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cocoa powder are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,920 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Kisses

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Warm the sugar and cocoa mixture together.

  2. Drop the mixture in round shapes onto greased pans.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until dry.

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. Sugar + cocoa powdertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + cocoa powdertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and bulk, and helps the kisses set and dry into a crisp shell.
Egg whites
Add structure and lift, giving the mixture a foamy base that holds its shape while baking.
Cocoa powder
Supplies chocolate flavour and colour, and adds dryness that helps the kisses firm up.

The step that matters

Baking until dry. A slow oven dries the sugar and egg-white structure without browning them. Pulling the kisses too early leaves them sticky and soft in the centre.

“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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