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Chocolate Crullers

A fried dough pastry flavored with chocolate, cinnamon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chocolate Crullers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then add sugar, shortening, grated chocolate, cinnamon, and milk.

  2. Sift the flour, measure it, then sift again with salt and baking powder.

  3. Combine the flour mixture with the egg mixture, then roll out to ¼‑inch thickness.

Shape and fry

  1. Cut the dough with a doughnut cutter or into strips, then braid.

  2. Fry the braided dough in deep, hot fat like ordinary doughnuts.

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. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + cinnamontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in the fat.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its body and holds the shape.
Baking powder
Releases gas during frying so the cruller puffs and stays light.
Shortening
Adds fat for tenderness and a softer, less tough crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and contributes to browning in the hot fat.
Grated chocolate
Gives the dough its chocolate flavor and color.

The step that matters

Fry in deep, hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the dough soaks up oil and turns greasy and heavy instead of sealing and puffing. Hot fat sets the outside quickly, so the crullers brown and stay light inside.

“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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