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Dessert

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Whip the cream.

  3. Drain the whipped cream.

  4. Scrape the chocolate.

  5. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

Make the custard

  1. In another small saucepan, combine the chocolate, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of hot water; stir over heat until smooth.

  2. Stir the chocolate mixture into the hot milk.

  3. Add the soaked gelatin and the remaining sugar; strain into a basin that holds at least 2 quarts.

  4. Place the basin in a pan of ice water and stir until cold and thickened.

  5. Gradually stir in the whipped cream, starting with half.

Mold and serve

  1. Dip the mold in cold water and pour the cream into it.

  2. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

  3. Before serving, dip the mold in tepid water, ensuring the cream releases from the sides, and turn it out onto a flat dish.

  4. Serve with additional 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. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  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 cream so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and richness, giving the set cream a soft, airy texture.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and some body to the cream.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate and gelatine are stirred into.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Cooling the custard before folding in the cream. The custard must be cold and thickened, not set, before the whipped cream is stirred in. If it is still warm, the cream will deflate and lose its air, and if it has set firm the cream will not blend evenly.

“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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