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Dessert

Chocolate Creams

A sugar candy made from boiled sugar syrup, rolled into marbles, coated in melted 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 fondant

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and enough water to moisten it well. Add cream of tartar.

  2. Boil without stirring until the syrup threads when tested in cold water.

  3. Remove from heat and let it stand for 10 minutes. Then add vanilla.

  4. Beat the syrup with a silver tablespoon until it becomes opaque.

  5. When cool enough to handle, roll into small marbles and place on a buttered plate.

  6. If the sugar crumbles, add a few drops of warm water or place over steam.

Coat and set

  1. Melt the chocolate in a tin plate over steam without stirring. If not flavored, add vanilla after melting.

  2. Roll each cream ball in the melted chocolate and lay on a buttered plate. Set in a cool place.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Granulated sugar
Forms the syrup and, once beaten, the creamy crystalline body of the centre.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup to limit large sugar crystals, keeping the centres smooth and soft.
Sweet chocolate
Forms the outer coating that gives each cream a firm, glossy shell and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling without stirring to the threading stage. Stirring while sugar syrup boils can trigger premature crystallisation, leaving grainy centres. Cooking to the threading stage sets the sugar concentration needed for a soft yet firm fondant.

“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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