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Dessert

Hollandaise Charlotte

A chilled dessert made from whipped cream, chocolate, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Hollandaise Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a plain round mold with parchment paper.

Make the filling

  1. Dissolve the chocolate and sugar in the milk over low heat.

  2. Add the gelatine and stir until melted, then remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Whisk the cream until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the whipped cream until it begins to set.

Set

  1. Pour the mixture into the lined mold and refrigerate until firm.

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

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

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 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).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it gives the charlotte its light, airy body.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture as it cools, giving it a firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that dissolves the chocolate and sugar.
Chocolate
Adds flavour and colour and dissolves into the milk to season the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps dissolve the chocolate into the milk.

The step that matters

Folding the chocolate mixture into the whipped cream. Fold gently and stop once the mixture begins to set. Overmixing deflates the whipped cream and loses the air that makes the filling light.

“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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