Skip to main content
Dessert

Bavarian Cream

A chilled custard dessert made with sweet cream, egg yolks, gelatin, sugar, and vanilla or almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and gelatin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the gelatin in enough cold water to cover it for 1 hour.

  2. Heat 1 pint of cream until boiling.

  3. Beat the egg yolks smoothly with the sugar.

  4. Gradually add the boiling cream mixture to the egg yolks, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken but does not boil.

  5. Remove from heat and flavor with the extract.

Combine and set

  1. Stir in the other pint of cream that has been whipped to stiff peaks.

  2. Gently fold the whipped cream into the custard until combined.

  3. Dip a mold in cold water, pour in the mixture, and set on ice to form.

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 + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 set with gentle heat, and add richness.
Gelatin
Sets the cream so the dessert holds its shape when unmolded.
Sweet cream
Provides richness and moisture, and whipped portion adds airy lightness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilize the egg yolks while beating.

The step that matters

Gradually add the boiling cream mixture to the egg yolks. Adding hot cream too quickly can scramble the egg yolks. Stirring constantly and stopping at slight thickening keeps the custard smooth, because overheating causes the yolk proteins to curdle.

“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.

More bavarian cream recipes

Strawberry 33Chocolate 24Pineapple 24Coffee 14Orange 14Fruit 8 See all 171 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes