Which cream is best for whipping: tips for choosing and preparing cream

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Tenderest whipped cream is one of the best creams for cakes, pies and other desserts. But in order for this airy delicacy to turn out, you need to know which cream is best for whipping. Indeed, today in stores any dairy products are represented by the widest range. On sale you can find different products - with varying degrees of fat content and expiration date, animal or even vegetable origin. What is the best whipping cream? It is worth looking into this issue in more detail.

What is cream

Sour cream and cream are two very similar products. Some do not even fully understand how they differ. People who are far from cooking know only that sour cream tastes sour, and cream is unleavened. But in reality there are many more differences.

Sour cream is not made at home. It appears spontaneously, after the milk settles into yogurt. Most offat is at the top and turns sour. It is this layer that is sour cream. It can be separated from curdled milk and eaten. The fat content of the product will depend only on the fat content of milk.

In production, sour cream is made from cream. They add sourdough, and the output is a product with a predetermined percentage of fat content. Usually it is 10, 15, 20 and 25%. However, 40% amateur sour cream is also on sale.

Cream is prepared by the separation method, when all fatty fractions are separated from the rest of the milk in a centrifuge. Then they are pasteurized, since this product should not have a sour taste. Cream also has a different percentage of fat content: 10–20% is ordinary, drinking, for adding to coffee, and from 30% is fatty, for creams and other dishes. It is almost impossible to get them at home without a centrifuge. However, if you take fatty village milk and defend it a little, but not to the point of souring, then a yellow fatty film forms on top. This will be liquid drinking cream.

What kind of cream to buy for cream

Which cream is best for whipping cream? In fact, this product has several criteria that you need to navigate, namely:

• You only need to buy a natural product. That is, cream of exclusively animal origin, without dyes, flavors, stabilizers, gelatin or flavor enhancers. You can determine naturalness not only by the inscription on the label, but also by the expiration date. Real cream can turn sour after 5-7, maximum 10 days. If the termshelf life longer, then it is better to refrain from buying.
• The optimal percentage of cream for whipping is 35-40%. Products with a fat content of less than 30% should not be taken at all, since the cream, although whipped, will quickly settle and become liquid. High percentage creams make thick, fluffy creams that hold their shape. However, the higher the fat content, the higher the calorie content of the dessert.
• Be sure to look at the expiration date. The best whipping cream is the freshest. It is better to take those that have stood no more than three days in the store. Older ones have a slightly different taste. A slight sourness is added to the characteristic sweet-fresh taste. It's not as scary, but a more mature product tends to delaminate during the churning process.
• When buying, you need to choose the products that are on the cooling rack. But in no case should you take cream from the freezer or from the usual shelf.
• Heavy cream whips better. However, liquid ones are quite suitable if they are of the desired fat content, fresh and natural. In addition, cream thickens spontaneously over time. So if the product is a little watery, then this can serve as an indirect sign of its freshness (together with the production date).
• The manufacturer can be anything. Everything here is decided by trial and error. There is a popular opinion that dairy products should only be taken locally. But this is far from the case for cream. This is such a specific product that not all dairies produce it. And some, on the contrary, carry their products for 200-300 km.

Vegetable

Vegetable cream is an alternative to animal fats. They whip up better, do not fall off, keep their shape perfectly. Taste characteristics are debatable. In store products, they are used everywhere, as they do not deteriorate for a long time and are cheaper than animal fats. However, they are made from hydrogenated oil and act like the lowest quality animal fat in the body, filling the arteries with cholesterol. So for homemade desserts, it is better to use a natural product.

How to whip

Good whipping cream can be ruined by choosing the wrong equipment. The modern kitchen has many appliances that make life easier. And someone can try to thicken the cream with a blender. This will result in three separate fractions - butter, whey, and possibly milk. It is best to make cream the old fashioned way - with pens, using a whisk.

Some housewives use a blender whisk attachment and run it at low speed. This is acceptable, however, at this speed of the process, the cream is easy to churn.

The ideal equipment for whipping cream is a food processor with a special attachment and an appropriate program. It works slowly, and you can stop at any stage and evaluate the result.

Preparation

After the necessary products have been purchased and the equipment has been selected, you can begin to prepare. Here are some tips to help you get the best results:

• What is the best cream to use for whipping? Of course, chilled. Before preparing the cream, they need to be put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Some cooks, trying to speed up the process, put them in the freezer. You don’t need to do this, otherwise they will delaminate in the process.
• All fatty fractions in dairy products float to the top. Therefore, the cream must be mixed before whipping. Otherwise, the cream may be uneven.
• Whisks and other tools for work also need to be cooled.
• Instead of sugar, use well-sifted icing sugar.

Process

The recipe for whipped cream is very simple - you need to whip the most delicate dairy product with powdered sugar. What is the best cream for whipping? Of course, fatty, fresh and chilled. The process itself looks quite simple:

1. Refrigerate the dairy product and tools.
2. Put the cream into a large bowl.
3. Beat with a whisk or with a combine at low speeds. As soon as a thick hat begins to form, you need to gradually add powdered sugar - 60-70 gr. for every 500 ml.
4. When thick peaks appear on the cream, you need to stop whipping. Otherwise, the cream will separate. Typically, whipping time is from two to ten minutes. The operating time will also depend on the fat content, temperature of the product, its freshness and many other factors.

Thickeners when warranted

What cream forwhipping is better? According to culinary experts, natural dairy products are more preferable. But even they can fall off after beating. To prevent this from happening, you need to stop whipping gradually, reducing the speed to a complete stop. The cream is best stored in a perforated container so that excess liquid can drain (it sometimes forms during operation).

If this does not help or you need a denser, well-shaped cream, then you can add gelatin. It is taken 10-15 gr. for 500 ml of cream and diluted in hot water in a ratio of 1:6. Then the soaked gelatin should be mixed with whipped cream and mix everything again with a whisk. Usually such measures are needed when there is not enough fat content in the dairy product.

Stabilizers

Cream is stabilized not only by gelatin. For this, special powder, yogurt, agar-agar, marshmallow pieces, starch and some other products are also used. Inexperienced cooks who are not confident in their abilities, it is better to use powder stabilizers. They thicken the cream, create a stable dense structure. In addition, the supplement is available in a variety of flavors and colors, even pieces of fruit.

Helpful tips

Here's what to remember when preparing the most delicate airy cream:

1. Before you decide which whipping cream is best to buy, you need to remember that they must be natural, fresh, fatty and without additives.
2. Powdered sugar is added in the middle of the process, in small portions. Otherwise, she mayget lumpy.
3. Thickeners and gelatin are the perfect addition to cream that is too thin. But it's better to avoid them and buy a quality product from the beginning.
4. Gelatin is one of the safest cream stabilizers. However, it makes the structure of the cream a little different, and this must be taken into account.
5. If the cream does not turn into foam, you can add a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice. But you need to do this gradually, in small portions.
6. Sometimes 1-2 tablespoons of yogurt or fresh fat sour cream are added to the cream. But you need to take only natural products, without additives.
7. Crushed cream cannot be used as a cream. They can either be refined into real butter, or mixed with diluted gelatin and sent to the refrigerator. Makes a good milky dessert.
8. The shelf life of homemade dairy cream is 1 day in the refrigerator.
9. Usually badly finished cream "flows". It is necessary to correctly determine the degree of readiness of the cream. This can be seen in the thick, steady peaks that the whisk leaves a mark on.

Now you know which whipping cream is better to buy in the store. Cook tasty and with pleasure!