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Dessert

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

A chilled chocolate custard made with gelatin, milk, cream, and chocolate.

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 Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak gelatin in cold water.

  2. Melt chocolate in a small saucepan set over a larger pan of boiling water.

  3. Stir in sugar and hot water until smooth, then add the soaked gelatin.

Make the cream

  1. Combine this mixture with the hot milk and strain into a bowl.

  2. Set the bowl in a pan of ice water and beat until it begins to thicken.

  3. Fold in the whipped cream, vanilla, and salt.

Set

  1. Pour into molds and chill until set.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

Vanilla and sugar 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

Gelatine
Sets the cooled mixture into a firm, sliceable body once chilled.
Chocolate
Gives the cream its chocolate flavour and colour.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when folded in whipped.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that gives the dessert its smooth, rich body.
Sugar
Sweetens the chocolate mixture and balances its bitterness.

The step that matters

Set the bowl in ice water and beat until it begins to thicken. Gelatine sets quickly as it cools, so the mixture must thicken to a loose, pourable-but-thick state before the whipped cream is folded in. Over-chilling can cause lumps or a set mixture that will not blend evenly with the cream.

“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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