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Dessert

Coffee Cream

A chilled coffee-based gelatin dessert made with cream, milk, sugar, and gelatine.

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 ↓

Coffee Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee liquid

  1. Boil the milk.

  2. Pour the boiled milk over the coffee and stir.

  3. Let it settle.

  4. Strain through muslin.

  5. Let it settle again.

  6. Carefully pour off the liquid from the sediment.

Add the gelatine

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the coffee mixture.

Whip and set

  1. Whisk the cream until stiff.

  2. Add the cooled gelatine mixture.

  3. Stir until it begins to set.

  4. Pour into a wet mold.

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

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

  5. Cream + milktop 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

Cream
Whipped into stiff foam that gives the dessert its light, rich body.
Coffee
Provides the main flavour and dark colour of the dessert.
Milk
Adds body and softness, diluting the coffee to a mellow flavour.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid as it cools, holding the whipped cream in shape.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Add the cooled gelatine mixture. Gelatine must be cool but still liquid. If it is hot, it can deflate the whipped cream's air bubbles. If it is already set, it forms lumps instead of blending evenly. Stir gently and stop once it begins to thicken, before pouring into the mold.

“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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