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Chocolate Creams

Chocolate cream balls coated in chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream balls

  1. Boil sugar and cream together until a drop forms a soft, creamy ball in cold water.

  2. Let the mixture cool, then beat it until very white.

  3. Flavor with vanilla and form into small balls.

Make the chocolate coating

  1. Make another fondant by boiling sugar and water.

  2. Mix half of the fondant with melted chocolate until well combined.

  3. Dip the cream balls into the chocolate mixture and place on greased paper to dry.

Use leftovers

  1. Use any leftover chocolate and fondant to make plain chocolate candies.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Sugar
Forms the sweet fondant structure that sets into the soft, creamy centre.
Thick, sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the centres a smooth, creamy texture.
Melted chocolate
Forms the flavourful coating that hardens around the cream balls as they dry.

The step that matters

Beating the cooled fondant until very white. Beating cooled sugar syrup forces tiny sugar crystals to form, producing a smooth, opaque, creamy fondant. If the mixture is beaten while too hot, or not cooled enough, it stays runny or sets grainy.

“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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