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Dessert

Chocolate Doughnuts

A fried doughnut made with eggs, chocolate, butter, milk, flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Chocolate Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

Make and shape the dough

  1. Add the sugar, melted chocolate, melted butter, and sweet milk to the eggs. Stir in the vanilla extract. Mix until soft.

  2. Cut into shapes.

Fry

  1. Fry in hot fat.

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 + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the donut dough together.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the dough as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the donut brown during frying.
Melted chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and color to the dough.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture so the dough becomes soft and workable.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, donuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through. Steady, moderate heat gives an even, light result.

“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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