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Dessert

Chocolate Charlotte

A chilled gelatin-based dessert with whipped cream, chocolate, and ladyfingers.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Whip the cream until frothy and place it in a bowl over ice water.

Make the custard

  1. In a small pan, combine the chocolate, sugar, and boiling water; stir over heat until smooth.

  2. Add hot milk and soaked gelatine to the chocolate mixture, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the whipped cream, then gently fold in the chocolate mixture until it thickens.

Assemble and chill

  1. Line a quart charlotte mold with lady fingers.

  2. Pour the thickened cream mixture into the mold and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Serve

  1. To serve, turn the charlotte out onto a flat dish.

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

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

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the chilled cream mixture so the charlotte holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Whipped to trap air, giving the charlotte a light, airy texture.
Shaved chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and some body to the mixture.
Lady fingers
Form the outer shell and structure around the mold.
Sugar
Sweetens the chocolate mixture and balances its bitterness.

The step that matters

Fold the chocolate mixture into the cream gently. Whipped cream holds its air only when handled gently. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, leaving a dense charlotte instead of a light one.

“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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