Why it works: Sugar and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Icing, Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the sugar and cold water in a saucepan.
Stir over low heat until it reaches boiling point.
Simmer for 4 to 5 minutes.
Pour the syrup into a bowl, add the coffee essence, and stir until the icing becomes less transparent as it cools.
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.
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Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Icing sugar or fine castor sugar
- Dissolves into the syrup and sets into the icing's sweet, smooth body as it cools.
- Coffee essence
- Adds concentrated coffee flavour and aroma to the sweet icing.
The step that matters
Simmer for 4 to 5 minutes.. Simmering evaporates some water and concentrates the sugar syrup. Too little time leaves the icing thin and runny, while too much time makes it set stiff and hard as it cools.
“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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