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Dessert

Nougat Sponge Chocolate

A chocolate nougat sponge made by cooking sugar, glucose, butter, cream, and almonds, then cutting and dipping in chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Nougat Sponge Chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a kettle, combine 5 pounds of sugar, 5 pounds of glucose, and enough water to dissolve.

  2. Add 2 ounces of butter and cook until it reaches the hard ball stage, like for caramels.

  3. Stir in 1 quart of cream and cook again to hard ball.

Pull and shape

  1. Pour the mixture onto a slab and fold up the edges.

  2. Once cool, pull the mixture on a hook, then lay it on the slab.

  3. Knead in 2 pounds of chopped almonds.

  4. Flatten the mixture between iron bars and use a rolling pin to achieve a thickness similar to caramels.

Cut and finish

  1. When cold, cut into pieces that are ¼ inch wide and 1½ inches long.

  2. Dip the pieces in chocolate.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

Sugar
Forms the sweet, crystalline structure that sets as the mixture cools.
Glucose
Limits crystallisation, keeping the candy smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer bite and richer flavour.
Cream
Adds milk fat and moisture, giving a softer, creamier texture.
Almonds
Add body and nutty flavour, and are kneaded through to distribute evenly.

The step that matters

Cooking to the hard ball stage. Sugar syrup must reach the correct temperature to set firm but chewy. Undercooking leaves it sticky; overcooking makes it brittle and hard to pull.

“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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