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Chocolate Caramels

A chewy caramel made with molasses, sugar, chocolate, milk, butter, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine molasses, sugar, chocolate, milk, and butter.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage.

Set and cut

  1. Remove from heat and stir in chopped walnuts.

  2. Pour into a greased pan and let cool before cutting into squares.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, deep flavor, and a chewy, moist texture to the caramel.
Sugar
Sweetens the caramel and, as it cooks, helps it set firm when cooled.
Chocolate
Adds rich chocolate flavor and color to the caramel base.
Milk
Adds moisture and dairy richness, softening the caramel's texture.
Butter
Adds fat for smooth richness and a tender, non-brittle bite.
Walnuts
Add crunch and nutty flavor that contrast with the chewy caramel.

The step that matters

Cooking to the soft ball stage. Stop cooking too early and the caramels stay sticky; cook too long and they turn hard. Stirring constantly prevents scorching on the bottom of the pan, since sugar and milk solids burn easily over medium heat.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, chocolate, milk, butter):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, chocolate, milk, butter. 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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