Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate Caramels are a sweet treat made with chocolate, milk, molasses, brown sugar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Prepare

  1. Mix the grated chocolate and milk together until smooth.

Make the caramel

  1. In a greased pan, combine the molasses and brown sugar, and stir for 20 minutes.

  2. To test, drop a little mixture into a glass of water; if it hardens, it's done.

  3. Add the chocolate mixture and butter to the pan, and boil for 15 more minutes, stirring constantly.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into buttered tins, and when cool, mark with a 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. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and bulk, and helps the caramel set chewy as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor and moisture, and contributes to the caramel's dark color and chewiness.
Milk
Supplies milk solids and water that give the caramel a creamy, softer texture.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and fat that enrich the caramel.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and richer flavor.

The step that matters

Testing the cooking stage with water. Sugar syrups harden at different temperatures depending on how far water has evaporated. Testing by dropping a little into cold water shows whether the mixture has cooked enough to set firm when cooled. Undercooked caramel stays soft and sticky; overcooked caramel turns hard or bitter.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chocolate, milk, molasses, sugar, butter):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, milk, molasses, sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipes