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Chocolate Cream Pie. Fenchonettes Au Chocolat.

A chocolate custard pie topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Cream Pie. Fenchonettes Au Chocolat.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Boil the milk with the chocolate and a little sugar to prevent burning.

  2. Mix the flour and remaining sugar together, then beat into the milk mixture.

  3. Add the butter and beaten egg yolks, then remove from heat.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in thin puff pastry crusts.

  2. Whip the egg whites until firm, then add sugar and vanilla.

  3. Spread meringue over the hot pies and bake with the oven door open for a few minutes.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Chocolate
Gives the filling its chocolate flavour and colour.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the filling holds its body when cut.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped egg white meringue.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture in the filling.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg yolks to the hot filling. Egg yolk proteins set when heated, so the yolks can scramble or curdle if the mixture is too hot or they are added too fast. Stirring them in gradually and removing the pan from heat keeps the custard smooth.

“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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