Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Filberts

Chocolate Filberts are chocolate-coated hazelnuts made by drying, coating with chocolate and baking until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla 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 Filberts

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the nuts

  1. Crack the nuts.

  2. Place the nuts in a 350°F (175°C) oven to dry for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the nuts from the oven.

  4. Rub off the skins from the nuts.

Make the chocolate paste

  1. Grate the chocolate finely.

  2. Mix the grated chocolate with sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.

  3. Make a thick paste with the chocolate using enough egg whites.

Coat and bake

  1. Place the nuts on a flat dish.

  2. Pour the chocolate paste over the nuts.

  3. Roll the nuts with a small wooden spoon until fully coated.

  4. Dust a baking tin with flour.

  5. Space the coated nuts apart on the tin.

  6. Bake slowly until the chocolate hardens.

  7. If the nuts stick together, separate them when 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.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

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

  2. Hazelnut + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Hazelnut + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together148 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Hazelnut + chocolatetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together350 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Filberts (hazelnuts)
Form the main body of the confection, providing crunch and nutty flavour.
Chocolate
Forms the coating that hardens around the nuts, giving sweetness and rich flavour.
Egg whites
Bind the grated chocolate and sugar into a paste that clings to the nuts.
Sugar
Sweetens the chocolate coating and helps it set firm as it cools.

The step that matters

Bake slowly until the chocolate hardens. Chocolate that is baked too hot can scorch or separate, while slow heat lets the coating dry and set evenly without burning.

Swap the filbert

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Filbertthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against hazelnut, chocolate, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, egg. 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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes