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Dessert

Fruit Chocolates

Chocolate-covered fruit pieces made from dates, figs, prunes or apricots, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and apricot share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Fruit Chocolates

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the dates, figs, prunes or apricots, and nut meats using a meat grinder.

  2. Shape the mixture into small forms.

Coat and dip

  1. Roll each piece in powdered sugar.

  2. Dip each piece in melted chocolate.

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. Fig + apricottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Dates + apricottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Dates + chocolatetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together86 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Dates
Provide sweetness and moisture, and help the chopped mixture hold together in shaped pieces.
Figs
Add sweetness, chewy body and moisture to the chopped fruit mixture.
Prunes or apricots
Add sweetness, chewiness and moisture to the fruit filling.
Nut meats
Add crunch and richness to the filling.
Powdered sugar
Forms a dry, sweet coating that keeps sticky fruit pieces from clumping.
Melted chocolate
Forms a fat-based outer coating that sets firm and glossy as it cools.

The step that matters

Dipping in melted chocolate. Chocolate must be fully melted and fluid but not overheated. Overheating can cause it to seize or set dull and streaky, and water from the fruit can make it stiffen.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dates, fig, meat, sugar, chocolate):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against dates, fig, meat, sugar, chocolate. 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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