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Dessert

Bavaroise Au Café

A chilled coffee-flavored Bavaroise dessert made with milk, egg yolks, 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 ↓

Bavaroise Au Café

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chill the whipped cream in the refrigerator until thoroughly cold.

  2. Add the ground coffee to boiling milk, cover, and let it steep for 15 minutes.

  3. Stir in the sugar until dissolved, then remove from heat.

Make the custard

  1. Gradually mix the hot coffee mixture into the beaten egg yolks while stirring steadily.

  2. Strain the mixture into a clean saucepan and cook over boiling water, stirring until it thickens slightly without boiling.

  3. Pour the hot mixture over the soaked gelatin and stir until dissolved.

  4. Strain into a bowl and place on ice to cool.

Finish

  1. Once it begins to set, fold in the whipped cream.

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. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Coffee + creamtop 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. 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 and add richness as they set gently with heat.
Gelatine
Sets the chilled custard so it holds its shape when served.
Whole milk
Carries the coffee flavour and gives the custard a creamy body.
Whipped cream
Adds airy lightness and fat, softening the set custard's texture.
Ground coffee
Provides the main coffee aroma and bitter flavour infused into the milk.

The step that matters

Cook the custard without boiling. Egg yolks scramble if overheated, so the mixture must thicken gently over simmering water and never reach a boil. Stirring keeps heat even and prevents curdling.

“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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