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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A chewy candy made from sugar, glucose, condensed milk, butter, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla 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 ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 250°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the caramel

  1. Boil the sugar, glucose, and water until it reaches the soft ball stage (250°F).

  2. Dissolve the milk, butter, and chocolate together.

  3. Combine the dissolved mixture with the boiled sugar mixture and bring to a gentle boil.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture onto an oiled slab or into frames.

  2. Once set, mark deeply with a caramel cutter.

  3. When cold, separate with a sharp knife and wrap each piece in wax paper.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Sugar + condensed milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Chocolate + condensed milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together541 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when boiled, the firm structure that sets the caramel.
Glucose
Slows sugar crystallization, keeping the caramel smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
Condensed milk
Adds milk solids and sweetness, giving the caramel its creamy body and soft chew.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, smooth texture and a rich mouthfeel.
Pure unsweetened chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavor and deep color, along with some fat for richness.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar to the soft ball stage. The sugar syrup must reach about 250°F to set into a chewy, not too hard or too soft, caramel. Undercooking leaves it sticky and soft; overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

“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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