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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A chewy candy made from sugar, molasses, milk, butter, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Make the caramel

  1. Combine sugar, molasses, milk, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens and can hold its shape in water.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped chocolate until melted.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into flat buttered pans to a thickness of ½ inch.

  2. Allow to cool and set before cutting into pieces.

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

Fine granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and forms the bulk of the caramel structure as it cooks.
New orleans molasses
Adds depth of flavour and moisture, and contributes to the caramel's chewy texture.
Milk
Adds dairy richness and softness to the caramel as it cooks down.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and a richer mouthfeel.
Baker's chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and fat, and helps the caramel set firm and rich.

The step that matters

Boil until it holds its shape in water. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firm when cool. Stopping too early leaves caramels soft and sticky; cooking too long makes them hard and brittle.

“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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