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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A sweet candy made from sugar, molasses, milk, chocolate, and butter, boiled until brittle.

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. In a large pot, combine sugar, molasses, sweet milk, chocolate, and butter.

  2. Boil the mixture until it becomes brittle when tested in cold water.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into shallow pans.

  2. When it begins to harden, cut it into squares 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. 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. Chocolate + buttertop 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, the firm body that sets the caramel.
Molasses
Adds deep flavour and colour, and keeps the caramel soft and chewy.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the caramel.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and fat, giving the caramel a rich, smooth body.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and a smoother, richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil until brittle in cold water. Sugar syrup sets according to how far its water has boiled off. Stop too early and the caramels stay sticky; cook too long and they turn hard. The cold water test shows when the syrup has reached the right concentration.

“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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