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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A sweet treat made by boiling sugar, molasses, milk, butter, and chocolate, then setting in a pan.

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 saucepan, combine sugar, molasses, milk, and butter.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the mixture boils.

  3. Continue boiling until it thickens and forms a soft ball in cold water.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate until melted.

Set and cut

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

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

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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, the firm body that sets the caramel.
New orleans molasses
Adds deep flavour and moisture, and helps the caramel stay soft and chewy.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the caramel as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and richer flavour.
Baker's chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and richness to the cooked caramel base.

The step that matters

Boiling to the soft ball stage. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set into a soft, chewy texture. Stopping too early leaves the caramel sticky and runny, while cooking too long makes it hard.

“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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