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Dessert

Chocolate Tartlets

Chocolate tartlets are filled with a chocolate custard baked in pastry shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Chocolate Tartlets

Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chocolate Tartlets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the chocolate custard

  1. Rub the chocolate smooth in the milk.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat.

  3. Add the dissolved corn-starch and stir until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  5. Beat in the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into tartlet shells lined with pastry.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  3. Top with meringue made from the egg whites and a little powdered sugar.

  4. Bake until lightly browned.

  5. Serve cold.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and set it when baked; whites whip into the meringue topping.
Corn-starch
Thickens the chocolate mixture as it heats, giving the custard body.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and rich body of the custard.
White sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue stay glossy and stable.
Milk
Liquid that carries the chocolate and dissolves the corn-starch for an even custard.

The step that matters

Heat the custard until thickened, then cool before adding the eggs. Corn-starch thickens only when heated to a boil, so it must be fully cooked. Adding yolks to a very hot mixture can scramble them, so cooling slightly first keeps the custard smooth.

“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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