Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made by boiling chocolate, sugar, vinegar, milk, butter, and molasses until hard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine chocolate, sugar, vinegar, milk, butter, and molasses in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture until it hardens in cold water.

  3. Pour into a greased mold or onto a floured surface 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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, the firm set that gives caramels their chew.
Milk
Adds moisture and dairy richness, and its proteins contribute to browning and a softer texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender bite and rich flavor.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavor, and extra color through caramelization.
Vinegar
Adds a small amount of acidity that helps keep the sugar from crystallizing.
Chocolate
Adds cocoa flavor, richness, and color to the caramel.

The step that matters

Boil until it hardens in cold water. Sugar sets as its concentration rises during boiling. Testing a drop in cold water shows when the mixture has reached firm caramel stage. Stopping too early leaves caramels soft and sticky, while cooking too long makes them 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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipes