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Chocolate Caramels

A sweet caramel made with brown sugar, molasses, chocolate, milk, flour, and butter.

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. Combine brown sugar, molasses, grated chocolate, boiled milk, flour, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a slow boil, stirring constantly.

  3. Once it reaches the desired consistency, pour it onto flat tins to cool.

Cut and serve

  1. While still warm, cut 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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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).

Flour and butter 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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the bulk of the caramel's body as it dissolves and thickens.
Molasses
Adds depth, moisture and a darker, toffee-like flavour to the caramel.
Grated chocolate
Contributes chocolate flavour and fat that firms as the caramel cools.
Boiled milk
Adds dairy solids and moisture that help build a soft, chewy caramel texture.
Flour
Thickens the mixture so it sets firmly rather than remaining runny.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender bite.

The step that matters

Bringing the mixture to a slow boil. Stirring constantly prevents the sugars and milk solids from scorching on the bottom of the pan. Heating slowly lets the mixture reach the thickened stage evenly, which determines whether the caramels set soft and chewy or too hard.

“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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