Skip to main content
Dessert

Baked Chocolate Custard

A baked custard made with milk, eggs, chocolate, cinnamon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,655 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Baked Chocolate Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the custard base

  1. In a double boiler, combine the cinnamon and milk and cook over heat for 10 minutes.

  2. Shave the chocolate and place it in a small pan with 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of boiling water. Stir over heat until smooth and glossy.

  3. Stir the chocolate mixture into the hot milk, then remove from heat and cool.

  4. In a bowl, beat the eggs, salt, and 2 tablespoons of sugar together. Add the cooled milk and strain the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into cups and place them in a deep pan. Add enough tepid water to the pan to reach nearly the top of the cups.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 30 minutes, or until firm in the center. Test with a knife; if it comes out milky, it needs more time.

  3. Serve very 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 + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable texture as they cook.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that gives the custard its body and creaminess.
Chocolate
Gives the custard its chocolate flavor and color.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Baking in a water bath. Eggs set gently when heat is moderate and surrounded by water. Too much heat or too long in the oven can curdle the custard and leave it grainy or watery, so check for firmness at the center rather than relying only on the timer.

“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 chocolate custard recipes

Pie 12Cake 9Pudding 8Frozen 6Baked 5 See all 198 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes