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 Drops
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.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar and melted butter.
Add the melted chocolate, sweet milk, chopped nuts, and egg. Stir well.
In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda and flour, then add to the wet mixture.
Stir in the vanilla.
Bake and finish
Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto buttered baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set.
Frost with chocolate icing after cooling.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Nuts + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together638 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they set.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps it set firm when baked.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acidity in the mixture to help the drops rise and spread lightly.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the finished drops.
- Light brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the drops brown.
The step that matters
Bake until just set. Overbaking dries out the drops and makes them hard, while underbaking leaves them doughy in the centre. Watch for the surface to look set at the 10-12 minute mark.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, chocolate, milk, egg, flour, vanilla):
- Almondfits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, chocolate, milk, egg, flour, vanilla. 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.
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