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Dessert

Chocolate Tartlets

Chocolate tartlets made with grated chocolate, cake crumbs, sugar, butter, cornflour, eggs, and topped with chocolate icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Chocolate Tartlets

Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Tartlets

twelve tartlets
Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream the egg yolks and sugar together.

  3. Add the cake crumbs, grated chocolate, cornflour, and melted butter to the mixture.

  4. Whip the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.

Bake and finish

  1. Line twelve patty pans with short pastry and fill them with the mixture.

  2. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until set.

  3. Once cooled, cover each tartlet with chocolate icing and let it harden before serving.

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.

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.

  1. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites give lift and an airy structure, while yolks enrich the filling and help it set.
Cake crumbs
Bulk and body that soak up the filling so it bakes into a tender, sliceable texture.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and some richness in the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a moist, tender crumb.
Cornflour
Starch that thickens the filling and helps it hold its set when baked.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the creamed yolks become light.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped stiff; overmixing or stirring them in forcefully knocks the air out, leaving dense tartlets instead of light ones.

“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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