Alex Rast said:at Tue, 22 Jun 2004 23:19:02 GMT in <20040622191902.13589.00000413@mb-
m12.aol.com>, [email hidden] (JLove98905) wrote
:
Quoted message said:I'm not quite sure what I did wrong, but my whipped cream
kind of liquified in the fridge after I made it. I
attempted to re-whip it, which didn't work. I used
whipping cream, which was cold right out of the fridge,
and a plastic bowl, which was room temperature. I also
added a little bit of cocoa powder (unsweetened) to it,
for chocolate flavor.
What's the key to getting good stiff whipped cream? And
what causes it to fall flat in the fridge?
The big key is to use cream marked "heavy cream", not
"whipping cream". Whipping cream, despite the name, is
usually not high-fat enough to whip properly and stay
whipped.
Of course it is. Millions of gallons of it are whipped
every day.
Quoted message said:Heavy cream usually is. You want 40%+ fat.
You can't buy cream with fat content like that in the US and
I don't see it very often in Europe either, unless you're
getting it from the dairy directly. Commercial creams for
whipping that are sold at retail are 30% or 36%. Foodservice
operators can get 40% cream.
Quoted message said:In addition, stay away from ultra-pasteurized which tastes
somewhat funny and because of the high-temperature
processing that denatures the cream doesn't whip as well,
and avoid products containing carrageenan or gums, or any
other stabilisers. Usually if they're included it's a good
indication that the cream isn't thick enough on its own
merits to whip well.
It's all but impossible to stay away from ultrapasteurized
cream if you're buying it in supermarkets. It will whip just
fine and the gums will help stabilize it. Thickness is a
function of total milkfat and temperature. Cold=thick.
Quoted message said:As others have mentioned, a plastic bowl is also a bad
idea, especially since the cream may absorb a plasticky
flavour from it.
"...a plasticky flavor..." Right. Like food-safe plastics
have any flavor at all.
Quoted message said:Better to use a cold bowl, although if you've got the real
deal (pure, pasteurized, heavy cream) it's not really
necessary.
Milkfat will *always* whip better cold.
Quoted message said:For chocolate flavour, btw, it's a little better to melt
some chocolate and whip it into the cream just before the
cream becomes fully stiff. The chocolate will stabilise
the cream very well.
And warm it nicely to help it deflate.
Quoted message said:It's also possible, if rewhipping didn't work, that you
overwhipped it and the cream separated into curds and
whey. Did it return to an even fluid
Cream that has been whipped to any sort of peaks won't
return to a liquid. Overwhipping cream won't get curds and
whey; it'll get butter and buttermilk.
Quoted message said:or did it become a mass of lumps in a watery liquid? If
the latter, you overwhipped it.
That's called butter.
Quoted message said:It's easy to do this with whipping cream, because it may
*never* whip fully stiff and you might well continue
whipping in a futile attempt to achieve a state it's never
going to have.
This is plain silly. If you want a good stiff whipped cream,
whip it in a cold bowl - metal or glass - add sugar or not,
until it holds an upright peak. Scrape it into a strainer
and put that over a bowl to drain. Put the whole thing into
the fridge. You'll get a small, watery puddle in the bottom
of the bowl and the cream will stay whipped and get a nice
density. For a chocolate flavor, combine cocoa powder with a
bit of liquid sugar (corn syrup or simple syrup) and whip it
into the cream. A bit of confectioners' sugar can help
stabilize it, but I don't like to use commercial stuff
because of the corn starch and that slight grittiness from
it. The starch will hydrate some, but it doesn't add
anything useful to the cream since it doesn't gelatinize
without cooking. I take plain table sugar and run it through
my processor until it's fine.
Pastorio
