Why it works: Walnut and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Cream Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare flavorings.
Prepare colorings.
Prepare manila paper.
Make the candy base
Combine sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a new basin.
Boil the mixture without stirring until it threads from a spoon.
Remove the mixture from heat.
Let the mixture cool until it can be stirred to grain.
Color and shape
Divide the mixture into portions for coloring.
Save most of the mixture for white color.
Flavor each portion to your taste.
Color each portion to your taste.
Mix the portions well.
Shape the candy as desired.
Color the candy red.
Shape the candy like berries.
Roll the candy in red sugar.
Layer colored portions for striped candy.
Roll the layered portions up.
Slice the rolled candy.
Form round flat bunches.
Place half a walnut on top of each bunch.
Fill dates with the candy.
Press the filled dates together.
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.
-
Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together302 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Nuts + walnuttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together284 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Chocolate + nutstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together440 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,548 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the sweet crystalline structure of the candy when cooked and then stirred to grain.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the syrup to help prevent crystals from forming too large during cooking.
- Melted chocolate
- Provides color and flavor for the portions that are tinted.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture without stirring until it threads from a spoon. Stirring during boiling can trigger sugar crystallization, making the candy grainy in the wrong way. Cooking to the thread stage concentrates the sugar so the candy sets firm when cooled and stirred.
Swap the dates
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, chocolate, nuts, walnut):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Datesthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, chocolate, nuts, walnut. 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.
More cream candy recipes
You might also like
Chocolate Cream171 recipes
Chocolate Cookies76 recipes
Chocolate Fudge55 recipes
Chocolate Drop Cookies50 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.