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Dessert

Coffee Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made by boiling coffee and sugar, mixing with milk, egg yolks, and cream, then freezing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Coffee Ice Cream

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 Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the coffee and sugar together until it forms a syrup.

  2. While hot, add the milk.

  3. While hot, add the beaten egg yolks, mixing rapidly.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Pour the syrup over the egg and milk mixture.

  6. Beat the mixture quickly.

  7. Return to heat.

  8. Cook until it begins to thicken. Be careful not to curdle.

Finish and freeze

  1. Add the cream.

  2. Freeze the mixture.

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.

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.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

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

  3. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

  4. Coffee + sugartop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving the ice cream a rich, smooth body.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and dissolves into the coffee to form the syrup base.
Cream
Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream smooth and creamy rather than icy.
Milk
Adds liquid and dairy richness, diluting the coffee into a softer base.
Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavour and bitterness that defines the ice cream.

The step that matters

Cook until it begins to thicken, without curdling. Egg yolks set at a fairly low temperature. Overheating or adding them too quickly lets the proteins clump and curdle, leaving a grainy custard. Keep the heat gentle and stir constantly.

“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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