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Dessert

Chocolate Bonbons

Chocolate bonbons are chocolate-coated confections made with chocolate, cream, simple syrup, sugar, nuts, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Chocolate Bonbons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fondant

  1. Cook 3 pounds of sugar with ½ teaspoon cream of tartar and 3 ounces of chocolate until it reaches a soft ball stage.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in ¼ ounce of ground cinnamon.

  3. Granulate briefly.

Make the filling

  1. Melt 1 ounce of chocolate for each pound of cream in a dipping pot over heat.

  2. Add the cream to the melted chocolate and stir until dissolved.

  3. Add ¼ pint of simple syrup for each pound of melted fondant.

  4. Chop English walnuts, hickory nuts, or Brazil nuts finely.

  5. Mix the chopped nuts with enough cream to form a paste.

Mould and finish

  1. Use a funnel to pour the mixture into starch prints in the desired shape.

  2. Let the prints set in a cool place overnight.

  3. Remove from starch and dip the set pieces in chocolate.

  4. Remove from chocolate and allow to set.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  5. Chocolate + cinnamontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 fondant base that sets firm as it cools.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the chocolate centre.
Chocolate
Adds rich flavour and fat, firming as it sets.
Simple syrup
Keeps the fondant smooth and pliable by limiting sugar crystallisation.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the sugar syrup, helping prevent crystallisation and keeping the fondant smooth.

The step that matters

Granulate briefly. Sugar syrup must be stirred only until it turns creamy and opaque. Over-stirring or cooling too far produces a coarse, grainy fondant, because the sugar crystallises into large crystals rather than a fine, smooth set.

“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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