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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A sweet caramel candy made with cream, sugars, chocolate, and butter.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine sweet cream, brown sugar, white sugar, and baking soda.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

Add the chocolate and set

  1. Reserve half of the cream and use it to wet the chocolate, adding a little water if necessary.

  2. Stir the chocolate into the sugar mixture and boil for an additional 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Once done, pour the mixture into a dish and mark it with a knife.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 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

Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the caramel a soft, creamy body.
Brown sugar
Adds deep sweetness and a molasses flavor, and helps the caramel brown.
White sugar
Provides sweetness and structure, setting firm as the mixture boils down.
Vanilla chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and body to the caramel.
Cornstarch
Thickens the mixture and keeps the caramel from becoming too hard.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth texture and a rich, buttery mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil for 30 minutes while stirring constantly. Sugar and cream scorch easily on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly, and the long boil concentrates the sugar so the caramel sets firm when cooled.

“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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