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Chocolate Cream Peppermints

Chocolate cream peppermints are small chocolate-dipped peppermint-flavored balls made from cold water, peppermint oil, powdered sugar, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and chocolate 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 Cream Peppermints

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mints

  1. In a saucepan, combine cold water and oil of peppermint.

  2. Remove from heat and stir until the mixture is stiff enough to mold into balls.

  3. Use powdered sugar on your hands while molding the balls to prevent sticking.

Coat and cool

  1. Melt the chocolate and dip the balls, which should be the size of hazel nuts, using a long pin.

  2. Place the dipped balls on parchment paper to cool.

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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Peppermint + chocolatetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together448 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Peppermint + sugartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,082 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold water
Dissolves and binds the powdered sugar into a moldable paste.
Oil of peppermint
Provides the mint aroma and flavor.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and body, stiffening the mixture into a shapeable dough.
Chocolate
Forms a coating that sets firm and crisp as it cools.

The step that matters

Stiffening the mixture before molding. Stirring off the heat until the mixture is stiff enough to shape is what makes the balls hold together. If the mixture stays soft, the balls will stick to your hands and be hard to dip, so dust your hands with powdered sugar as you work.

Swap the peppermint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Peppermintthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, chocolate. 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.

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