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Dessert

Coffee Cream

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl.

  2. Boil the milk.

  3. Pour the boiled milk over the yolks, stirring quickly.

  4. Return the mixture to the saucepan.

  5. Cook over low heat until thick, without boiling.

  6. Dissolve the gelatin in the coffee essence and water.

  7. Add the sugar.

  8. Once cool, stir the gelatin mixture into the custard.

Finish and set

  1. Whip the cream.

  2. Fold the whipped cream into the custard when both are completely cool.

  3. Pour the mixture into a wetted or decorated mold when it is nearly set.

  4. Place the mold in a cool place until fully 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.

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

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

  4. Sugar + coffeetop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and give it a rich, smooth body.
Gelatin
Sets the custard so it holds its shape when unmolded.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when folded in whipped.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat without boiling. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the custard boils, the yolks can curdle and turn grainy, and the smooth texture is lost.

“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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