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Dessert

Cream Chocolates

A chocolate cream made with brown sugar, milk, butter, and chocolate, set into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cream Chocolates

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate cream

  1. In a saucepan, mix brown sugar, milk, butter, and grated chocolate.

  2. Cook on the stove, stirring often, until a drop of the mixture hardens in ice water.

  3. Add extra sugar and vanilla, then beat for a few minutes.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into well-buttered pans, about ½ inch thick.

  2. Let it sit to harden, then mark off in squares when nearly cold.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and a caramel-like flavor as it cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for smooth texture and richness.
Grated chocolate
Supplies chocolate flavor and color to the candy.
Extra sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture set firm when cooled.

The step that matters

Cooking until a drop hardens in ice water. Sugar candy sets according to how much water has evaporated and how concentrated the sugar becomes. Stopping too early leaves it soft and sticky; cooking too long makes it brittle and hard.

“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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Balls 47Cake 29Filling 21Pie 16Drops 12Candy 8 See all 133 →

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