Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Chocolate Jumbles
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.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar, sweet cream, and butter.
Add the grated chocolate, baking soda dissolved in cream, cream of tartar, and egg. Mix well.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is very stiff.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough thin and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a baking sheet and bake until lightly golden.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the dough rich and tender when creamed with sugar.
- White sugar
- Creamed with butter, it sweetens the dough and helps give a crisp, tender texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to lift the dough and promote browning.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid with baking soda, helping the cookies rise and brown.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Grated chocolate
- Adds chocolate flavor and richness to the dough.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the mixture is very stiff. Adding too much flour makes the dough dry and tough, while too little leaves it sticky and hard to roll. Adding it gradually lets you stop once the dough is stiff enough to roll thin and cut cleanly.
“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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