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Chocolate Creams

Chocolate cream balls coated in melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Make the centres

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and mix well.

  3. Flavor with vanilla and roll into small balls.

  4. Drop the balls onto a buttered platter and let them stand for at least 1 hour.

Coat and set

  1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over boiling water.

  2. Dip each cream into the melted chocolate using a fork and place them back on the buttered dish.

  3. Allow the chocolate to harden for at least 30 minutes.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they create the airy structure that holds the sugar mixture together.
Confectioners' sugar
Dissolves into the whipped whites to form a firm, sweet, pliable paste for shaping.
Chocolate
Melts into a glossy coating that sets firm and adds bittersweet flavour and a crisp shell.

The step that matters

Letting the centres stand before dipping. The balls need at least an hour to dry on the surface; if they are still moist, the melted chocolate will not adhere well and may seep or streak.

“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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