Slightly bitter coffee jelly (jello) and sweetened cream are a perfect match of flavour combination as well as visual effects. I have never seen coffee jelly served in Australian cafés, but in Japan it is one of the most popular dessert menu items at cafés and restaurants.
Note: I did not realise jelly is called jello in America. So for those who are familiar with jello, please read the post by replacing ‘jelly’ with ‘jello’.
In mid-January, I was invited to my friend’s holiday cottage down on the south coast of New South Wales with other friends. This is an annual event and each one of us takes responsibility to serve everyone’s dinner in the evenings. I usually serve Japanese dishes and this year I served Kingfish Tartare Japanese Style (will be posted soon) as part of the starters. For the main I decided to serve a Chinese dish, Hainanese Chicken and garlic rice.
The dinner is usually a three-course meal and I always struggle to come up with a suitable dessert as it is not my habit to have dessert after main meals. To avoid sweet desserts, I sometimes served fruit salad for dessert and I had a feeling that I might have served it last year.
Then I remembered one of the desserts that I introduced to my other friend while we travelled Japan last November. It was a Japanese version of parfait and it had coffee jelly in it. I really enjoyed this dessert as the ice cream and cream went so well with the bitterness of the coffee flavoured jelly. So, I decided to serve coffee jelly to my friends.
What I didn’t know was that my friends had never tasted coffee jelly and they had never heard of it. They are Aussie and know of jelly with other flavours but coffee jelly was new to them. They were very curious about what it would taste like. They didn’t say it, but I am sure they were a bit worried that it might not be tasty.
I served coffee jelly cut into cubes with sweet thickened cream on top and my friends loved it. They said that the slightly bitter coffee jelly went very well with the subtle sweetness of the thickened cream. One of my friends went for a second and I was so happy that my coffee jelly was well received. They said I should post the recipe.
That was a long story but that’s how coffee jelly made it to the post today.
Neither coffee nor jelly originated from Japan, of course, and I am sure they both came from Western countries. But it seems that coffee jelly has taken root in Japan more than any other countries.
It is pronounced ‘kōhīzelī’ (コーヒーゼリー) or ‘kōhījelī’ (コーヒージェリー) in Japanese. Coffee is pronounced ‘kōhī’ because the Japanese language does not have the sound ‘f’ and most foreign words with ‘f’ gets replaced with ‘h’.
Coffee jelly is quite simple to make and there are many different ways of serving it. One common way of serving it is to make the jelly in a glass and top with cream once the jelly is set (like the first photo).
Sometimes, jelly is moulded into a flat large container, then cut into cubes to serve in a glass or a cup (see the photos below), topped with cream (photo above and I added instructions for this in the recipe, too). You could also use a jelly mould and serve on a plate.
Most recipes make coffee jelly sweetened with sugar but I don’t do it. I simply make espresso coffee and add gelatine to set. But I add sugar to the cream so that the sweetness balances out with the slightly bitter coffee jelly. I do it this way because you can’t control sweetened coffee jelly, but you can adjust the sweetness by controlling the amount of cream to add.
It is a bit bitter so I should say coffee jelly is a dessert for adults.
Yumiko
Slightly bitter coffee jelly (jello) and sweetened cream are a perfect match of flavour combinations as well as visual effects. It is one of the most popular dessert menu items at cafés and restaurants in Japan.
Prep Time includes minimum time to chill jelly to set (3 hours).
Note: I did not realise jelly is called jello in America. So for those who are familiar with jello, please read the recipe by replacing 'jelly' with 'jello'.
- 6g (0.2oz) gelatine powder
- 60ml (2oz) cold water
- 250ml (8.5oz) strong black coffee (hot, note 1)
- 150ml (5.1oz) cream
- 10g (0.6oz) sugar (note 2)
- Chopped strawberries and mint leaves
- Shaved chocolate and mint leaves
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Add the cold water to a small container and sprinkle the gelatine and soak in it for about 5 minutes until the gelatine becomes soft and spongy.
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Add the gelatine to the hot coffee and mix well ensuring that gelatine is dissolved and there are no gelatine lumps.
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Pour the coffee mixture into 2 or 3 short glasses and chill them in the fridge for minimum 3 hours.
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When the coffee jelly is set, pour sweet thickened cream over the jelly, decorate with your choice of decoration if using.
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You will need about 9cm x 15cm (3 1/2" x 6") or similar surface size container with minimum depth of 3cm (1 3/16").
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Pour the coffee mixture into the container. It should make the thickness of the jelly to about 2.5cm (1"). Chill it in the fridge for minimum 3 hours.
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Using a knife, score the jelly at 2.0 - 2.5cm (3/4 - 1") interval to make grid lines (see the photos in the blog).
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Using a soft spatula that can bend easily, scrape off the jelly cubes gently, starting from one edge of the container. (note 3)
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Transfer them into serving glasses, pour sweet thickened cream, topped with decoration of your choice if using.
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While waiting the jelly is in the fridge to set, add cream and sugar in a bowl.
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Whip the cream until it thickens only slightly to a consistency a bit thinner than cream soup.
1. I have an espresso coffee maker so I used the coffee from it. But you can use any type of coffee and instant coffee is OK, too.
2. If you have a sweet tooth, you may want to increase the amount of sugar to 15g.
3. Even if the cubes crumble a bit, don’t worry. They will still look pretty.
I guess just cutting this in cubes is an error, it doesn’t match with enything and its tackiness avoids all possibility of enjoy an actual good dessert.
Hi Pepo, I respect your opinion. But in Japan, jelly is often served in cubes. When you pour milk or thin cream into the glass with cubed coffee jelly, it turns into a pretty mosaic pattern and I don’t think it is tacky..
Yes, i find it a bit artistic because you’ll never know what design comes out after pouring the cream!
Hi Flora, you can be as creative as you want to decorate on the cream.
Hi Yumiko! I live in America and havent found any restaurants selling coffee jelly sadly but thanks to your recipe I can make it at home! It tastes great and was even easier than I thought it would be, so thank you. I was introduced to coffee jelly from the show Saiki K where it is the character’s favorite dessert and ever since I have been wanting to try it. I love your blog and it is always fun cooking the delicious recipes on here. 🙂
Hi Sydney, even in Australia, you don’f find coffee jelly like the one I posted. I am glad that you can now make it just like the one on the Saiki K show.
I can’t wait to try it but it seems like jello, not jelly. I never use gelatin in jelly. Why do you call it that?
Hi Anita, Australians call it jelly and so do Japanese people, although the Japanese pronunciation of jelly is like ‘zerī’. In America, I now realis that jelly has a different meaning and it is jello as you pointed out. I will add a note to the post. Thanks for asking.
I am not a coffee drinker but I love coffee jelly ever since I was introduced to it. I have made it a couple of times using cream and condensed milk instead of sugar. I love it specially on hot summer months. A Quick and easy dessert.
Hi Joy, condensed milk Ould be a great addition to the coffee jelly.
Hey Yumiko
I made the jelly coffee on Monday night and let it set overnight before I topped with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate shavings on Tuesday night.. Man oh man is this ever a lovely tasty dessert and yet so simplistic to make.
I let the jelly set in a stemmed cognac glass which looked really impressive. This will be a definite for future dinners with friends.
Thanks again, this is definitely a keeper and what’s even better, hardly any calories.
Hi Barb, I can imagine how good it looked in a stemmed cognac glass! glad you liked it.
Hi Yumiko,
I made this today. Delish!!!! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Hi Penn, Great to hear!
I have never heard of coffee jelly. Also, I never knew that some foreign words will replace an “f” with an “h”. I always learn something new from you, Yumiko! Your coffee dessert looks so pretty, and I think I will be trying this dessert soon!
Thank you, Naomi. Please do try and let me know what you think.