Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Charlotte Russe

A chilled chocolate mousse lined with sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the isinglass or gelatine in cold water.

  2. Mix the cocoa with the sweet cream and the soaked gelatine in a porcelain kettle.

  3. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring until it boils and is well combined.

  4. Beat the egg yolks and egg whites together until very light.

  5. Stir the egg mixture and sugar into the chocolate mixture.

  6. Simmer the mixture without boiling.

Set and chill

  1. Pour the mixture into a bowl.

  2. Whip it to a strong froth.

  3. Line your pans or moulds with sponge cake.

  4. Fill them with the chocolate mixture.

  5. Set the filled pans on ice to chill.

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

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cocoa + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Cocoa + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together956 recipes

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

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Isinglass or gelatine
Sets the chilled mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the chocolate cream as they gently cook.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to add lightness and a airy texture.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving a smooth, creamy body.
Baker's prepared cocoa
Provides the chocolate flavour and dark colour.

The step that matters

Simmer without boiling. Boiling egg-thickened custard can curdle it and make it grainy, so it should only be kept just below a boil while the eggs set the mixture.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, sugar):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar. 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.

More chocolate charlotte recipes

Russe 5 See all 14 →

You might also like

Coconut PuddingCoconut Pudding26 recipesCoconut CakeCoconut Cake17 recipesCocoa Nut CandyCocoa Nut Candy11 recipesCocoa Nut PuddingCocoa Nut Pudding9 recipes