Let me introduce you to an ingredient used in my kitchen when wanting rich sauces or fresh whipped cream for desserts. Yes, fat and calorie count is on the high-end but used in moderation, it’s just glorious. Heavy Cream – January Featured Ingredient better known as Whipping Cream is a popular dairy product used in a variety of recipes. Heavy Cream is thick and fat-rich part of milk which floats to the top of fresh milk and then skimmed off. Types of cream are determined by its fat content. Most relevant, heavy cream consists of between 36 and 40 percent fat enabling the dairy treasure to be whipped easily and serve many purposes.
Whipping cream will double in volume when whipped and is used most often sweet and dessert recipes. But do not get British Double or Devon Cream and especially Clotted Cream confused for our heavy cream. Double Cream is the British term for their whipping or heavy cream and the fat content jumps to around 48 percent butterfat or greater. Double Cream can easily be over whipped causing the cream to become too thick and almost unusable.
Heavy Cream – January Featured Ingredient
Compared to Double Cream, the US version is ultra heat-treated and the British version is not but cream can go through 4 different processes to kill bacteria to ensure healthy consumption and maintain a reasonable shelf life. What process is used depends on the farms producing the cows to make the cream. Therefore, your best option for British creams is to look for the highest butterfat percentage as possible in specialty stores online or World Market, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Clotted Cream is heavenly on English muffins, scones or Crumpets. Take my word it, just try it! The less processing the better, delivering a richer and truer flavor.
As mentioned earlier, Heavy Cream – January Featured Ingredient has many uses. First, use cream to make fantastic sauces like for my Penne with Chicken Asparagus and Sun-Dried Tomatoes, cheese sauces, chowder, biscuits and scones. Second, use to cream in desserts like cookies, ice cream, creme pies, cakes, caramel, and frosting/glazes. Third, how about a big bowl of fresh whipped cream to top off a fabulous dessert? Just takes three to five minutes to whip one pint heavy cream to soft peaks, sweeten with 2 T. powdered sugar and 1 t. vanilla extract and there you go. Serve atop fresh fruit or puddings. Homemade whipped cream will last only a day or two at the most as a result will become watery. Don’t hesitate to use it all quickly.
Do your self a favor and start incorporating heavy cream into your favorite recipes. Did I mention how good scalloped potatoes or mac & cheese are with heavy cream? Go ahead…don’t be shy!
Happy Cooking!
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