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Coffee Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made from roasted coffee berries, cream, milk, arrow-root, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Coffee Ice Cream

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 Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the coffee base

  1. Roast the coffee berries.

  2. Place the roasted berries on a tin in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 5 minutes.

  3. Boil the cream and milk together in a saucepan.

  4. Combine the roasted berries with the scalding cream mixture.

  5. Cover the mixture until cold.

Make the custard

  1. Strain the mixture.

  2. Add the arrow-root.

  3. Boil the mixture like custard.

  4. Stir in the sugar until dissolved.

Freeze

  1. Freeze the mixture until solid.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Turkey + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together281 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

  5. 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

Turkey coffee berries
Provide the main coffee flavour and aroma once roasted and infused into the cream.
Cream
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel in the frozen dessert.
Milk
Adds liquid and milk solids that give a softer, creamier custard base.
Arrow-root
Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving the custard body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the frozen ice cream softer.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture like custard after adding the arrow-root. Arrow-root thickens when heated and can form lumps or scorch on the base of the pan if not kept moving. Stirring while it heats gives an even, smooth custard that sets properly before freezing.

“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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