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Dessert

Coffee Mousse

A chilled coffee mousse made with coffee, powdered sugar, cream, crushed ice, and sea salt.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mousse

  1. Combine coffee and powdered sugar with cream.

  2. Beat the mixture until it thickens and holds its shape.

  3. Pour into a paper-lined mold, filling it to the top.

Freeze and serve

  1. Cover with paper, place the lid on, and pack with equal parts crushed ice and salt for 2-3 hours.

  2. Serve in slices with a spoonful of whipped cream on top.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Coffee + creamtop 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).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream
Whipped into air bubbles, it gives the mousse its light, airy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the mousse and dissolves easily into the cream for a smooth finish.
Clear black coffee
Adds liquid and a coffee flavour that balances the sweetness of the sugar.

The step that matters

Beating the mixture until it holds its shape. Under-beaten cream stays runny and will not hold air, so the mousse stays dense. Over-beating can turn cream grainy or split it into butter, so stop once it is thick and holds its shape.

“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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