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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made from brown sugar, molasses, milk, butter, glycerine, and grated chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, molasses, milk, butter, and glycerine.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes.

  3. Add grated chocolate and boil for an additional 5 minutes.

  4. Test for brittleness; remove just before it reaches this point.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture thinly into buttered pans.

  2. Once cool, mark into squares and cut with a heavy 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

  5. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides the sweetness and caramel flavor, and helps set the color as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor and darkens the color, with some moisture for a softer chew.
Milk
Adds milk solids that soften the texture and give a creamy, chewy bite.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and helps keep the caramel from sticking.
Glycerine
Holds moisture in the candy so it stays softer and less prone to hardening.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and richness, along with some fat for a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Test for brittleness and remove just before it reaches this point. Sugar syrup keeps firming as it cools, so pulling it off the heat too late can leave caramels hard and brittle instead of chewy.

“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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