No. 3643

Chocolate Cream Caramels

Caramels a la Creme au Chocolate

Melt twelve ounces of chocolate in a copper pan with a pint and a half of good cream and half a pint of fruit syrup well flavored with vanilla, then add a pound and a half of sugar. Stand the pan on a hot fire and when the liquid begins to boil stir it vigorously with a spatula until it reaches "large ball" (No. 171), then pour it on a slightly oiled marble to half an inch in thickness, securing the caramel within lightly oiled square iron rods laid in the shape of a square. This caramel takes a long while to cool; when cold remove the rulers, detach from the marble and cut it first into long bands half an inch wide, and these across in half-inch squares. As fast as the caramels are cut wrap each one in a piece of waxed paper.

← No. 3642 Burnt Almonds Candies & Bonbons No. 3644 Vanilla Cream Caramels, or with Tea or Coffe →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward boiled cream caramel, but everything depends on reading the sugar stage correctly and keeping the milk solids from scorching. A clip-on candy thermometer replaces the water test entirely.

"Large ball" means 250-255F"Large ball" means roughly 250-255F -- Ranhofer's No. 171 covers the degrees of sugar boiling, from thread through the ball stages to crack and caramel; "large ball" (gros boulé) is conventionally put at about 250-255F / 121-124C. Much below that and the squares will slump instead of holding a cut edge.
The chocolate is unsweetenedThe chocolate is most likely unsweetened -- Twelve ounces of plain "chocolate" in a professional formula of this date probably means bitter chocolate liquor rather than a sweetened eating bar, though sweetened chocolate was also on the market. Use 12 oz of 100% unsweetened chocolate against the pound and a half of sugar.
"Fruit syrup" is a sugar syrup"Fruit syrup" is a sweet syrup -- Half a pint of a heavy confectioner's syrup, in period usage generally carrying a fruit flavour. Its exact sugar content is not recoverable from the text; a plain simple syrup made 2:1 sugar to water, flavoured with vanilla, is the honest substitute. It functions mainly as additional sugar and moisture.
Copper and the scorching problemAn unlined copper pan is prized for sugar work because it conducts fast and evenly; a heavy stainless or copper-core pan does the same job. Cream and chocolate both catch, so the instruction to stir vigorously with a spatula is not optional — scrape the whole bottom continuously from the moment it boils.
Marble and caramel barsThe "square iron rods" are caramel bars, still sold for the purpose. A rimmed sheet pan lined with oiled parchment, or a foil collar built to a half-inch depth, gives the same slab. Marble is useful because it pulls heat out of the mass quickly.
Cooling time is realA half-inch slab of this mass genuinely takes several hours to firm through. Cutting warm caramel drags and the squares knit back together; leave it at cool room temperature, not in the refrigerator, where condensation will make it sticky.
Yield, and consider halving itAs written this produces upwards of three pounds of finished caramel — a slab of roughly a foot square, yielding several hundred half-inch squares. Half the recipe is plenty for a household batch.
Wrap them for a reasonCaramel at this sugar stage cold-flows and absorbs atmospheric moisture. The waxed paper is what keeps the squares distinct; unwrapped, they will fuse into one block within a day or two.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, whose candy chapter reflects a restaurant that made its own bonbons for the dessert service. The French title, caramels à la crème au chocolat, marks it as a French confectioner's formula rather than an American one: the cross-reference to a numbered table of sugar degrees, the marble slab, the oiled iron bars and the boiled cream base are all standard confiserie practice of the period. Chocolate for professional work at this date was commonly supplied as unsweetened liquor in blocks, to be sweetened by the cook, which may be why the sugar here so far outweighs the chocolate. The neighbouring recipes — burnt almonds before, vanilla, tea and coffee caramels after — show how a house built a whole boxed assortment from one boiling technique and a change of flavouring.