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Coffee Ice Cream

A custard-based ice cream flavored with roasted coffee and ground coffee infusion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Coffee Ice Cream

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 Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine the heavy cream and egg yolks in a saucepan to make a custard.

  2. Add the hot Mocha coffee berries to the custard.

  3. Cover the pan with a lid and a napkin to trap steam.

  4. Let the custard sit for 1 hour.

  5. Strain the custard and sweeten it with sugar.

  6. Once the custard is cold, pour the mixture into a freezing pot.

Make the coffee infusion

  1. Place 2 ounces of ground coffee in a French cafetiere.

  2. Pour ½ cup boiling water over the ground coffee.

  3. Allow the infusion to run through.

  4. Boil the infusion.

  5. Add 2 more ounces of coffee to the infusion.

Combine and freeze

  1. Combine the infusion with 1 pint of sweetened cream or custard.

  2. Freeze the combined mixture.

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

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Heavy cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and emulsifying fat for a smooth texture.
Ground coffee
Supplies the coffee flavour and aroma that defines the ice cream.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.

The step that matters

Let the custard sit covered for 1 hour. Covering traps steam so the hot coffee flavour infuses the cream evenly and the custard keeps its moisture. Letting it cool fully before freezing helps the texture stay smooth rather than icy.

“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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