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Chocolate Tartlets

Chocolate tartlets filled with a thick chocolate custard topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Chocolate Tartlets

Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chocolate Tartlets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Rub the chocolate smooth in the milk.

  2. Heat over medium heat and add the cornstarch dissolved in a little more milk.

  3. Stir until thickened, then pour out and let cool.

  4. Once cool, beat in the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill open tartlet shells with the mixture.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  3. In the last few minutes, cover with a meringue made from the egg whites and a little powdered sugar.

  4. Let the meringue color slightly, then remove from the oven.

Serve

  1. Serve 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + buttertop 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
Yolks thicken the custard and whites form the meringue topping.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and color of the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk and chocolate mixture as it heats, giving the custard body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate and cornstarch are cooked into.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the meringue hold together.

The step that matters

Stir until thickened, then cool. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture is heated and stirred, so it must be stirred until it thickens before cooling. Stopping early leaves a thin filling that will not set properly once baked.

“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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