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Dessert

Chocolate Charlotte Russe

A chilled chocolate dessert made with gelatin, chocolate, cream, eggs, powdered sugar, whipped cream, and sponge cake strips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine and chocolate

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until covered.

  2. Gradually mix the grated chocolate into ½ cup cream.

  3. Add the soaked gelatine and heat in a double boiler until dissolved, stirring constantly.

Make the custard

  1. Remove from heat and cool while beating the egg yolks and whites until very light.

  2. Stir the beaten eggs into the chocolate mixture, then add the powdered sugar.

  3. Return to the double boiler and heat until the eggs are set.

  4. Remove from heat and fold in the whipped cream until well combined.

Mould and set

  1. Line molds with wet sponge cake strips, leaving a 1-inch space between them.

  2. Fill the molds with the chocolate mixture and set on ice.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  3. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Chocolate + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the chocolate mixture into a firm, sliceable structure when cooled.
Egg yolks
Thicken the chocolate mixture and add richness and body when gently heated.
Egg whites
Whipped to a foam, they add lightness and airiness to the mousse-like filling.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and, with the cream, a smooth, rich texture.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the filling creamy and soft.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the filling and dissolves easily into the warm mixture.

The step that matters

Heating the eggs until set. Eggs thicken as their proteins coagulate when heated, but overheating can scramble them. Heat gently in the double boiler, stirring, so the custard thickens smoothly instead of curdling.

“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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