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Dessert

Coffee Cream

A custard dessert made with coffee, eggs, gelatin, sugar, milk, cream, and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Coffee Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard by whisking together the milk and eggs in a saucepan over low heat until thickened.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine and sugar in the strong coffee.

  3. Stir the coffee mixture into the custard while it is still hot.

Finish and set

  1. Whip the cream until soft peaks form.

  2. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the custard and add richness and structure as they set with gentle heat.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid so the cream holds its shape when chilled.
Cream
Adds fat and a light, airy texture when whipped and folded in.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the dessert and helps dissolve the gelatine in the coffee.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, adding moisture and a smooth, creamy body.

The step that matters

Stir the coffee mixture into the custard while it is still hot. Gelatine must stay dissolved and evenly distributed to set properly. Adding it while the custard is warm helps it blend smoothly, while cooling too far can make it clump or set unevenly.

“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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