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Dessert

Chocolate Balls

Chocolate Balls are baked cookies cut into squares and rolled in a chocolate mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Balls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make and bake the cake

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix eggs, sugar, flour, milk, and baking powder until smooth.

  3. Divide batter into two greased 4x9 inch tins.

  4. Bake until done, then cut into 1½ inch squares.

Make the chocolate coating

  1. Boil grated chocolate, sugar, and water until it reaches a hair-like consistency.

  2. Remove from heat and add to beaten egg white.

Coat and finish

  1. Roll squares in chocolate mixture, then in powdered sugar.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and moisture while helping the cake rise.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cut squares together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the batter rises and becomes light.
Grated chocolate
Provides chocolate flavor and a dark color to the coating.
Egg white
Adds body and a light, airy texture to the chocolate coating.

The step that matters

Boiling the chocolate, sugar, and water to a hair-like consistency. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration. Too little cooking leaves the coating runny and it will not cling. Overcooking makes it stiff and brittle as it cools.

“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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