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Dessert

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

A chilled chocolate custard made with cream, milk, chocolate, sugar, vanilla, and gelatin, folded with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Make the base

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft.

  2. Scald the milk with the ground chocolate, then stir in the softened gelatine until dissolved.

  3. Remove from heat and add sugar and vanilla extract.

Chill and set

  1. Pour the mixture into a granite basin and set it in a pan of ice water, stirring until it begins to thicken.

  2. Fold in the whipped cream until well combined.

  3. Line a mold with peaches, pour in the mixture, and set in a cold place until firm.

Serve

  1. Unmold and serve with whipped cream.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 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).

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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid cream into a firm, sliceable dessert that holds its shape when unmolded.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when whipped and folded in.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that the chocolate and gelatine are dissolved into.
Ground chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and colour throughout the custard base.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Chilling until it just begins to thicken. Gelatine sets as it cools, so if the mixture is left to firm too far before folding in the whipped cream, it will not blend smoothly and may leave lumps. If it is not cooled enough, it will not hold its shape when set.

“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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