Gentle whipped cream is one of the best creams for cakes, pies and other desserts. But to get this airy treat, you need to know which cream is best for whipping. Indeed, today in stores any dairy products are represented by the widest assortment. On sale you can find different products - with varying degrees of fat content and shelf life, animal or even vegetable origin. What whipping cream is better to choose? It is worthwhile to understand 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 is sour to taste and cream is fresh. But in fact, there are many more differences.
Sour cream is not made at home. She appears spontaneously after milk settles in yogurt. Most of the fats are upstairs and sour. It is this layer that is sour cream. It can be separated from yogurt and eat. The fat content of the product will depend only on the fat content of the milk.
In production, sour cream is made from cream. They add leaven, and the result is a product with the initially set 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 separation, when in a centrifuge all fatty fractions are separated from the rest of the milk. Then they are pasteurized, since this product should not have an acidic taste. Cream also has a different percentage of fat content: 10–20% are regular, drinkable, for adding to coffee, and 30% are fatty, for creams and other dishes. At home without a centrifuge, it is almost impossible to get them. However, if you take village fatty milk and defend it a little, but not before souring, then a yellow greasy film forms on top. This will be liquid drinking cream.
What cream to buy for cream
What cream is better for whipping cream? In fact, this product has several criteria by which to navigate, namely:
- You only need to buy a natural product. That is, cream is exclusively of animal origin, without dyes, flavors, stabilizers, gelatin or flavor enhancers. Naturalness can be determined 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 expiration date is 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 it breaks, will quickly settle and become liquid. High-cream creams produce thick, lush creams that hold their shape. However, the higher the fat content, the more caloric the dessert will be.
- 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. Light sourness is added to the characteristic sweet-fresh taste. This is not so scary, but a more seasoned product tends to delaminate during the churning process.
- When buying, you need to choose products that stand on a cooling rack. But in no case should you take cream from the freezer or from an ordinary shelf.
- Thick 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 liquid, then this can serve as an indirect sign of its freshness (in conjunction with the production date).
- The manufacturer can be anything. Everything is decided here by trial and error. There is a popular opinion that dairy products should be taken only locally. But this is far from the case with 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 creams are an alternative to animal fats. They whip better, do not fall, keep their shape perfectly. Taste characteristics are controversial. In store products they are used everywhere, since they do not spoil for a long time and are cheaper than animal fats. However, they are made from hydrogenated oil and behave in the body like animal fat of the lowest quality, that is, they fill the arteries with cholesterol. So for homemade desserts it is better to use a natural product.
What to whip
Good cream for whipping cream can be ruined by choosing the wrong equipment. The modern kitchen has many appliances that make life easier. And someone may try to thicken the cream with a blender. The result is three separate fractions - butter, whey, and possibly milk. It is best to make the cream the old fashioned way - with pens using a whisk.
Some housewives use the whisk nozzle for the blender and operate it at low speed. This is acceptable, but at such a speed the cream process is easy to kill.
The ideal equipment for whipping cream is a food processor with a special nozzle and the corresponding program. It works slowly, and you can stop and evaluate the result at any stage.
Training
After the necessary products have been purchased and equipment selected, you can begin to prepare. There are some tips to help you achieve a better result:
- What cream is better to use for whipping? Of course, chilled. Before preparing the cream, they need to be refrigerated for a couple of hours. Some cooks, trying to speed up the process, put them in the freezer. You do not need to do this, otherwise they will be stratified in the process.
- All fat fractions in dairy products float up. Therefore, the cream must be mixed before whipping. Otherwise, the cream may turn out to be heterogeneous.
- Corollas and other work tools also need to be cooled.
- Instead of sugar, you should use well-sifted powdered sugar.
Process
The recipe for whipped cream is very simple - you need to whip the most delicate dairy product with powdered sugar. What cream is better for whipping? Of course, greasy, fresh and chilled. The process itself looks quite simple:
- Cool the dairy product and tools.
- Place cream in a large bowl.
- Beat with a whisk or using a combine at low speeds. As soon as a thick hat begins to form, you need to add a little sugar powder - 60–70 g. for every 500 ml.
- When thick peaks appear on the cream, you need to stop whipping. Otherwise, the cream will exfoliate. Usually the whipping time is from two to ten minutes. The operating time will also depend on the fat content, the temperature of the product, its freshness and many other factors.
Thickeners when they are justified
Which whipping cream is better? According to culinary experts, natural dairy products are more preferred. But even after whipping, they may fall. To prevent this, you need to stop whisking gradually, reducing the speed to a complete stop. The cream is best stored in a container with perforation so that excess fluid 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. 500 ml of cream and diluted in hot water in a ratio of 1: 6. Then the soaked gelatin needs to be mixed with whipped cream and mix everything once again with a whisk. Typically, such measures are needed when there is not enough fat in the dairy product.
Stabilizers
The cream is stabilized not only with gelatin. For this, special powder, yogurt, agar-agar, pieces of marshmallow, starch and some other products are also used. Inexperienced chefs 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, you can purchase a supplement with different tastes and colors, even with pieces of fruit.
Useful Tips
Here is what you need to remember when preparing the most delicate air cream:
- Before deciding which whipping cream is better to buy, you need to remember that they must be natural, fresh, greasy and without additives.
- Powdered sugar is added in the middle of the process, in small portions. Otherwise, it may come in clumps.
- Thickeners and gelatin are a great addition to too thin cream. But it’s better to avoid them and to buy a quality product from the very beginning.
- Gelatin is one of the safest stabilizers for cream. However, it makes the cream structure a little different, and this must be taken into account.
- 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.
- 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.
- Broken cream can not be used as a cream. They can either be refined to real oil, or mixed with diluted gelatin and sent to the refrigerator. It will turn out a good milk dessert.
- The shelf life of homemade cream from dairy products is 1 day in the refrigerator.
- Usually poorly finished cream “flows”. It is necessary to correctly determine the degree of readiness of the cream. This can be seen by the dense steady peaks, on which the corolla leaves a mark.
Now you know which whipping cream is best to buy in the store. Cook deliciously and with pleasure!