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Dessert

Coffee Bavarian Cream

A chilled coffee-flavored custard made with gelatin, milk, coffee, sugar, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Make the gelatine base

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Add boiling milk, boiling coffee, and sugar to the soaked gelatine, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

Set and serve

  1. Fold in the whipped cream gently.

  2. Fill a mould with the mixture and chill 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.

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. 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable cream as it cools and chills.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when whipped and folded in.
Sugar
Sweetens the coffee and milk base and balances its bitterness.
Milk
Gives the custard-like base body, softness, and a mild creamy flavour.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped cream. Gentle folding keeps the air bubbles in the whipped cream intact, so the set cream stays light. Overmixing deflates the foam and makes the dessert dense. The base should also be cool but still liquid, or the cream may collapse or the gelatine may 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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