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Dessert

Candy Caramels

A sweet treat made by cooking cream, sugar, butter, chocolate, and molasses until soft ball stage, then cooled and cut into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Candy Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine the cream, sugar, butter, chocolate, and molasses.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture reaches a soft ball stage.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pan and let it cool.

  2. Once cooled, cut into squares and serve.

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 + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, builds the structure that sets the candy.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the candy a softer, creamier texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender bite.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor and color, and moisture that affects the final chew.
Chocolate
Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking to the soft ball stage. Sugar syrup must reach the right temperature to set into the intended texture. Stirring constantly over medium heat prevents scorching and crystallization, and cooking too far makes the candy hard, while stopping early leaves it soft and sticky.

“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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