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Dessert

Chocolate Loaf

A chocolate loaf made with sugar, butter, eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, and melted chocolate, baked until done.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Chocolate Loaf

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.

  3. Add the egg yolks and milk, and mix well.

  4. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then add to the mixture.

  5. Fold in the melted chocolate and beaten egg whites.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a loaf pan.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Let cool and cover with white icing.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Whipped whites give lift and airy structure, while yolks add richness and set the crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
All-purpose flour
Its proteins set into the loaf's structure as the batter bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the loaf rise and become light.
Melted chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and fat, deepening color and moistness in the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only if they are stiff and kept intact. Overmixing or deflating them while folding in the chocolate makes the loaf dense instead of light.

“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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