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Chocolate Cream Caramels

Chocolate cream caramels are made by boiling sugar and cream, adding vanilla, cream of tartar, and chocolate, then cooling and cutting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate 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 ↓

Chocolate Cream Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel base

  1. Combine sugar and cream with the vanilla bean in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add cream of tartar to the boiling mixture.

  4. Stir the mixture continuously until it reaches a soft ball stage.

Cool and shape

  1. Pour the mixture onto a damp slab.

  2. Let the mixture cool on the slab.

  3. Once cool, cream the mixture with a scraper until smooth.

  4. Roll the mixture into a sheet about ½ inch thick on wax paper.

Add chocolate and set

  1. Reserve 1 quart of cream to dissolve the chocolate.

  2. Dissolve the chocolate in the reserved cream.

  3. Strain the chocolate mixture into the main mixture when it is half done.

  4. Mark the set mixture with a caramel marker.

  5. Cut the mixture into strips after it has set for an hour.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

Sugar
Forms the sweet caramel body that sets firm as the mixture cools.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the caramels a soft, smooth texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidity that helps prevent sugar from crystallising, keeping the caramel smooth.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and richness to the caramel.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture continuously until it reaches a soft ball stage. Sugar syrup can scorch or crystallise if stirring stops or it is overcooked. Stopping at the soft ball stage gives a chewy rather than hard or grainy texture once cooled.

“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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