Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A sweet candy made from sugar, glucose, butter, cream, and chocolate.

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

Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the caramel

  1. In a large pot, combine the sugar, glucose, butter, cream, and cream of tartar.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until it hardens when tested in cold water.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate and vanilla until smooth.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into shallow pans and let it cool.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Granulated sugar
Provides the sweetness and forms the firm, set structure as the mixture cooks.
Glucose
Helps prevent sugar crystals from forming, keeping the caramel smooth and soft.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the caramel a rich, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer bite.
Baker's chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and deep color to the caramel.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that helps keep the sugar smooth and stops crystallization.

The step that matters

Cooking until it hardens in cold water. The final sugar temperature decides the texture. Stopping too early leaves the caramels soft and sticky, while cooking too long makes them hard and brittle.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes