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Dessert

Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate cookies topped with a chocolate icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chocolate Cookies

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the cookies

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix brown sugar, grated chocolate or cocoa, sour milk, melted butter, baking soda, vanilla extract, and egg yolk until soft.

  3. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet.

  4. Bake for 10‑12 minutes or until cookies are set.

Make the icing

  1. For the icing, beat the egg white in a bowl until stiff peaks form.

  2. In a saucepan, boil granulated sugar and water until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  3. Slowly pour the hot syrup into the beaten egg white while continuously beating until cool enough to spread.

Finish

  1. Spread the icing on the cooled cookies.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and gives the cookies a soft, chewy texture.
Grated chocolate or cocoa
Provides the chocolate flavour and dark colour of the cookies.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the cookies rise and stay tender.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the cookies.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the dough together.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the egg white. The syrup must be poured slowly while beating continuously. Pouring too fast or stopping the beating can deflate the whipped egg white or cook it unevenly, leaving the icing runny or grainy instead of smooth and spreadable.

“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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