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Dessert

Chocolate Ice Cream Candy

A hard chocolate candy made by boiling sugar, water, butter, and chocolate, then cooling and pulling.

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 Ice Cream Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy base

  1. Boil the sugar, water, and cream of tartar for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the butter; the mixture will froth and double in volume.

  3. Continue boiling until it reaches a soft crack stage.

Shape and finish

  1. Pour the mixture onto a well-greased plate or slab.

  2. Knead in the powdered chocolate.

  3. When cool enough, pull the candy on a hook, adding vanilla extract while working.

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. Butter + creamtop 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

Sugar
Forms the bulk of the candy and sets into a firm, brittle structure as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the candy.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent crystallisation and keeping the candy smooth.
Chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavour and colour throughout the candy.

The step that matters

Continue boiling until it reaches a soft crack stage. Sugar syrup must reach the correct temperature to set properly. Too little cooking leaves the candy sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

“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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