Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Cream

A chilled chocolate custard made with milk, sugar, gelatin, chocolate, eggs, cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Chocolate Cream

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 Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine milk, sugar, chocolate, and gelatin in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking until dissolved.

  2. Beat egg yolks in a bowl. When the milk mixture begins to boil, add the yolks and cook for 1 minute.

  3. Strain the mixture into a freezer bowl set in ice water.

Finish and chill

  1. Rinse the saucepan with the cup of cream and add it to the mixture in the freezer.

  2. Flavor the mixture with vanilla and beat as it cools.

  3. Fold in the whipped egg whites.

Serve

  1. Pour the cream into oiled molds or serve by spoonfuls from the freezer with sweetened whipped cream.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they cook with the milk.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled or molded.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they lighten the texture and add airiness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the other ingredients dissolve and set into.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and softens the set texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolks into the milk. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but overheating them can scramble the custard. Add them once the milk is hot, and cook only until it thickens to keep the base smooth.

“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.

More chocolate cream recipes

Balls 47Cake 29Filling 21Pie 16Drops 12Candy 8 See all 133 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipesChocolate Drop CookiesChocolate Drop Cookies50 recipes