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Dessert

Little Chocolate Puddings

A chocolate custard baked in individual cups with a breadcrumb base.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Little Chocolate Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease the custard cups with butter and fill each with soft bread crumbs.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk.

  2. Once heated, add the chopped chocolate and sugar, stirring until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and let it cool slightly.

  4. Whisk in the beaten eggs until well combined.

  5. Pour the mixture over the bread crumbs in the cups.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cups in a baking pan and surround them with boiling water.

  2. Cover with buttered paper and bake for about 20 minutes, until puffed in the center.

  3. Turn out from the cups and serve with vanilla or chocolate sauce.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

Eggs
Set the custard into a tender, sliceable structure as they cook and puff.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the custard and give the pudding a soft, absorbent body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and keeps the texture creamy.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and adds richness to the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Bake under a water bath. Surrounding the cups with boiling water moderates the heat so the eggs set gently. Overbaking at high heat can make the custard grainy, curdled, or rubbery.

“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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