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Dessert

Chocolate Creams

Chocolate-covered cream balls made from sugar, water, corn starch, vanilla, and 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 cream

  1. In a saucepan, mix sugar, water, and corn starch.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly for 5 to 8 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir until it thickens to a cream.

  4. Once nearly smooth, add vanilla extract and form into balls.

Coat and set

  1. Melt the chocolate in a separate bowl without adding water.

  2. Roll the cream balls in the warm chocolate.

  3. Place the chocolate-covered balls on greased paper to harden.

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Corn + chocolatetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Sugar
Forms the sweet body of the cream as it cooks into a syrup.
Corn starch
Thickens the cooked syrup so it sets into a firm, creamy centre.
Baker's chocolate
Forms a melted coating that hardens into a crisp shell around the centres.

The step that matters

Stirring while the mixture boils. Sugar syrup can scorch or crystallise if it sits unstirred on heat, and stirring keeps the heat even. Cooking it fully also matters, since the starch and sugar need to reach the right concentration to set properly.

“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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