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Dessert

Apple Chocolate

A custard dessert made with milk, chocolate, eggs, apples, and cinnamon, finished with powdered sugar glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate custard

  1. In a saucepan, boil the milk with the chocolate and sugar until it reaches a boil.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and whites together in a bowl.

  3. Remove the chocolate mixture from heat and gradually stir in the eggs.

Assemble and cook

  1. In a deep dish, layer the pulped apples and sprinkle with cinnamon.

  2. Pour the chocolate mixture gently over the apples.

  3. Place the dish over a saucepan of boiling water and cook until the cream is set.

Glaze and serve

  1. Sift powdered sugar over the top and glaze with a hot spoon.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon 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

Egg yolks and whites
Set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm, sliceable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, carrying the chocolate and sugar.
French chocolate
Provides the rich flavor and dark color of the custard.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Pulped apples
Adds fruity moisture and a tart contrast beneath the rich custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over simmering water. Eggs thicken as their proteins set between about 160 and 180°F. Gentle, indirect heat from the water bath keeps the custard smooth; too much heat curdles it into a grainy texture.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, chocolate, sugar, egg, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, chocolate, sugar, egg, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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