Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Almond Rolls

Chocolate almond rolls are sweet confections made from sugar, glucose, water, coconut, marshmallows, chocolate, and ground roasted almonds.

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

Why it works: Coconut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Chocolate Almond Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a large pot, combine sugar, glucose, and water, then cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches 246°F (119°C).

  2. Pour the mixture onto a damp slab and sprinkle the top with coconut and marshmallows.

  3. Once cooled, cream the mixture, then knead it until smooth.

Set and finish

  1. Press the mixture evenly into paper-lined caramel pans and let it set for several hours.

  2. Turn out the set mixture, cut it into small bars, dip each bar in thin chocolate, and roll in ground roasted almonds.

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. Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Coconut + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,107 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the bulk of the candy and, once cooked to temperature, sets firm as it cools.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and less grainy rather than sandy.
Fine dry coconut
Adds body and chewy texture to the set mixture.
Marshmallows
Add softness and moisture, making the centre tender and chewy.

The step that matters

Cooking the mixture to 246°F (119°C). This temperature sets the sugar concentration so the candy firms into a chewy, sliceable texture once cooled. Undercooking leaves it soft and sticky; overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, chocolate, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutthe original
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, chocolate, almond. 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

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipesChocolate Drop CookiesChocolate Drop Cookies50 recipes