Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Caeamels

A chewy candy made from sugar, molasses, milk, butter, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Caeamels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, molasses, milk, and butter.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring until the butter melts.

  3. Add the chocolate and continue to cook, stirring frequently.

  4. Boil the mixture until it thickens and forms a soft ball in cold water.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into flat buttered pans to a thickness of ½ inch.

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

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

Fine granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and the bulk of the sugar structure that sets into a firm caramel.
New orleans molasses
Adds deep flavor, color, and moisture, keeping the caramel soft and chewy.
Milk
Adds dairy richness and moisture, softening the texture of the caramel.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender bite and a rich mouthfeel.
Baker's chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and helps darken and enrich the caramel.

The step that matters

Boil to a soft ball stage. Sugar concentration determines firmness once cooled. Stopping too early leaves the caramel too soft to hold its shape, while cooking too long makes it hard and brittle. Checking for a soft ball in cold water helps you hit the right point.

“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 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipes