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Coffee Bavarian Cream

A chilled coffee‑flavored custard dessert with whipped cream topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Coffee Bavarian 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 Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the gelatine in ¼ cup of milk for 30 minutes.

  2. In an agate saucepan, beat the egg yolk and sugar until creamy.

  3. Slowly pour in ⅔ cup of boiling hot milk while stirring continuously.

  4. Place the saucepan in another with boiling water and cook for 4 minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Add the soaked gelatine, stir, and cook for 1 more minute, then add a pinch of salt.

Add the coffee and cream

  1. Once cooled but not set, stir in ½ cup of cold strong coffee.

  2. Whip 5 tablespoons of cream to stiff peaks, then fold in the whipped egg white.

  3. Combine the whipped cream mixture with the coffee mixture and pour into a shallow glass dish.

Set and serve

  1. Refrigerate for several hours, or set on ice in summer.

  2. Once set, top with Sea-foam cream flavored with 2 teaspoons of coffee.

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. Milk + coffeetop 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. 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

Gelatine
Sets the cooled custard into a firm, sliceable cream.
Egg yolk
Enriches the custard and helps it thicken when gently heated.
Cream
Whipped to add lightness and a rich, airy body.
Egg white
Whipped to add air, giving the set cream a lighter texture.
Coffee
Provides the main coffee flavor throughout the cream.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard after the gelatine goes in and adding coffee only once it has cooled. Egg yolk thickens when heated but can curdle or scramble if overheated, so the custard should be cooked gently while stirred. Adding the cold coffee only after cooling keeps the gelatine from setting too early or 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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