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 Cream Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the centres
Dissolve the gum arabic in the boiling water in a small bowl.
Stir in enough icing sugar to make a stiff dough, adding the vanilla extract at the same time.
Turn the mixture onto a surface and roll it into a cord.
Cut off pieces the size of hazelnuts.
Melt and coat
Cut the chocolate into small pieces.
Place the pieces in a tin cup set in a shallow pan of hot water to melt without adding water.
Dip the balls in the melted chocolate.
Set them on a pan or dish to harden.
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.
-
Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Icing sugar
- Forms the bulk of the stiff dough and sweetens the centres.
- Gum arabic
- Binds the sugar into a dough that holds its shape when rolled.
- Common chocolate
- Forms the outer coating that sets firm around each centre.
The step that matters
Melting the chocolate without water. Chocolate seizes and turns grainy if water or steam gets into it, so it should melt gently over hot water and never have water added.
“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.
You might also like
Chocolate Cream171 recipes
Vanilla Ice Cream108 recipes
Chocolate Cookies76 recipes
Chocolate Fudge55 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.