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Dessert

Butter Creams

Butter creams are a sweet confection made from sugar, water, butter, and vanilla, coated in chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Butter Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and cold water in a saucepan.

  2. Stir slowly with a wooden spoon until dissolved.

  3. Bring mixture to a boil, then add a pinch of cream of tartar.

  4. Do not stir again.

  5. Wash down any sugar that forms on the sides of the pan with a damp rag.

  6. Cook until mixture reaches soft ball stage when dropped in cold water, then remove from heat.

Cool and work the fondant

  1. Pour mixture onto a platter and let it cool.

  2. Once cool, beat with a wooden spoon until creamy.

  3. If mixture becomes too hard, wrap it in a damp cloth and knead like bread.

  4. Work in butter to taste and add vanilla extract before it hardens.

  5. Form mixture into small balls and let them sit for a few minutes.

Coat and store

  1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler.

  2. Dip each ball in chocolate using two forks, then place on oil cloth or wax paper to harden.

  3. Store fondant in a stone jar with a damp cloth on top to keep it fresh for weeks.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 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).

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 sweet crystalline body of the fondant once it is cooked and worked.
Cream of tartar
Acid that helps prevent sugar from recrystallizing into a grainy texture.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the fondant softer and creamier.
Chocolate
Forms a sweet, firm outer coating on each fondant ball.

The step that matters

Do not stir after the mixture boils. Stirring a boiling sugar syrup can cause sugar crystals to form, leading to a grainy rather than smooth fondant. Washing down crystals on the pan sides with a damp rag helps prevent this.

“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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