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Dessert

Coffee Cream

A chilled coffee‑flavored gelatin dessert made with cream, eggs, milk, sugar, and coffee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in enough cold water to cover for 45 minutes.

  2. Bring the milk to a boil, then remove from heat.

Make the custard

  1. Stir in the beaten egg whites and yolks, then add the sugar.

  2. Cook for 3 minutes.

  3. Cool slightly.

Finish and set

  1. Add the warmed coffee and the warm gelatine.

  2. Fold in the 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. Cream + sugartop 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. Cream + coffeetop 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. Cream + milktop 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 cream into a firm, sliceable texture as it cools.
Eggs
Thicken the custard base as their proteins set when heated.
Cream
Adds richness and, once whipped, lightness from trapped air.
Coffee
Gives the dessert its main flavour.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the custard base.

The step that matters

Cool slightly before adding the coffee and gelatine. If the base is still very hot, the warm gelatine may not set as firmly, and the heat can soften the whipped cream folded in afterward, causing it to deflate and lose its lightness.

“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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