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Dessert

Chocolate Cream Caramels

Chocolate cream caramels are made by boiling chocolate, molasses, cream, sugar, butter, and vanilla until a soft ball forms, then cooled and cut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Cream Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine ground chocolate, molasses, cream, white sugar, and butter in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the mixture together until well combined.

  3. Boil the mixture over medium heat, stirring continually, until it forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water.

  4. Add vanilla just before removing from heat.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture onto buttered pans.

  2. Once cool enough, cut into squares and wrap in paper.

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. Cream + buttertop 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Ground chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and dark colour to the caramel.
New orleans molasses
Adds deep flavour and moisture, and helps the caramels stay chewy.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the caramels a soft, smooth texture.
White sugar
Provides sweetness and, when boiled, the structure that sets the candy.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, smooth bite and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling to soft ball stage. The mixture must reach the soft ball stage, where sugar concentration sets the final chew. Too little boiling leaves caramels sticky and soft; too much makes them 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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