Skip to main content
Dessert

Cold Coffee Pudding

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, gelatin, coffee, powdered sugar, vanilla, eggs, and macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and gelatin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Cold Coffee Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Soak gelatin in coffee.

  2. Add powdered sugar to whipped cream and mix well.

  3. Beat egg whites until frothy.

Combine and set

  1. Combine coffee with soaked gelatin and mix into whipped cream.

  2. Add vanilla and mix thoroughly.

  3. Fold in crushed macaroons.

  4. Pour mixture into a mold and refrigerate until firm.

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. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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

Whipped cream
Provides the light, airy body and creamy richness of the pudding.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid mixture into a firm, sliceable structure as it chills.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cream and dissolves smoothly into it without graininess.
Macaroons
Add crumbly texture and almond-sweet flavor throughout the set pudding.
Coffee
Supplies the main flavor and liquid that hydrates the gelatin.

The step that matters

Combine the soaked gelatin into the cream evenly. Gelatin sets only when it is fully hydrated and evenly distributed. Lumps or unmixed pockets leave weak or rubbery spots, so mix it thoroughly into the whipped cream before chilling.

“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

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCoffee Ice CreamCoffee Ice Cream91 recipesCoffee CustardCoffee Custard27 recipesCoffee CakeCoffee Cake21 recipes