How to thicken the cream?
Whipped cream is not only the basis of a delicious home-baked cream and cakes, but also a way to decorate your culinary masterpieces.Many housewives prefer not to buy the finished product, and whip them yourself, to be sure in the absence of harmful substances. Unfortunately, even the best cream does not always freeze in the form of a lush foam, so it is worth considering how to thicken the cream at home.
Beating without thickener
Without adding a thickener, it turns out to beat only a product with a fat content of at least 33%. First you need to cool them in the refrigerator overnight. The container in which you are going to carry out the manipulations, as well as the whisk of your mixer, must also be put in the refrigerator for at least an hour. After removing the dishes from the refrigerator, wipe them with a paper towel and pour 300 grams of cream into it. Add 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar and start beating at the lowest speed of your mixer, gradually raising it to maximum. After 7 minutes, turn off the mixer - whipping cream is ready. Sometimes it is recommended to add powder already in the process of whipping. You can increase the fat content of the cream by gradually heating it over low heat to the state that precedes boiling.
In this case, boiling the product can not be allowed, so you may have to experiment with some part of your inventory to establish the required duration of heating.
The heated product should be allowed to cool to room temperature and then put into the fridge. After a few hours, the processed cream forms several layers. The upper one will be a fatter variation of the feedstock, and at the bottom there will be liquid, similar milk. Gently pour the top layer of the mixture into a separate bowl and beat as described above.
Another way to increase the density of the product is the evaporation of moisture from it in a water bath. To do this you will need two pans of different sizes. In the one that is larger, pour water and put the other inside the first one and fill it with cream and sugar, which is added in the ratio of 1 kg for every two liters of the product. Put this construction on a slow fire and cook for 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Purchased product
To make cream thick enough for cream with fat content of 20 percent or less without a thickener will not work. You can purchase ready-made composition in the store. Usually it is packaged in bags of 8 grams and is designed for a portion of 300 grams of cream. The procedure for obtaining the cream is similar to that discussed above, but instead of powdered sugar in a container with cream, you need to fill the entire contents of the thickener bag.
If you do not trust store thickeners and want to use only natural products, you can try one of the following recipes.
How to make yourself?
From starch
The composition of industrially manufactured thickeners usually includes only two components:
- a modified type of starch known as distarch phosphate;
- powdered sugar.
Therefore, it is possible to make a direct analogue of the store composition using ordinary potato starch. First you need to cool the cream as described above, and then mix them with starch in a ratio of 1.5 tablespoons of starch per 300 grams of product. We add the same amount of powdered sugar as when whipping more fat cream.
With gelatin
You can thicken the cream using regular gelatin. However, the sequence of actions in this case will be completely different, and the proportions will have to be observed with great accuracy: an insufficient amount of gelatin will not allow to obtain the necessary consistency, and an overdose will result in jelly, not whipped cream.
First you need to mix a teaspoon of gelatin and a glass of cream and let the mixture stand for 20 minutes. After that, you need to put the container with the mixture on low heat and heat until gelatin is completely dissolved. After removing from the plate the mixture must be cooled.
Then start to beat about two glasses of dairy product and gradually add the prepared gelatin mixture to the container.Continue the process until you receive the necessary product invoice.
The disadvantage of this method is that your cream will acquire a characteristic gelatin flavor. Disguise it can be using fruit or chocolate flavors.
With lemon juice
Another way to increase the thickness of the cream is to add lemon juice. The correct proportion is one teaspoon of juice per liter of dairy product. Note that exceeding the specified dosage will lead to a pronounced sour taste of your cream, which is desirable to avoid.
Storage
The finished product should be stored in the refrigerator and used for a cake or other dish during the day.
How to thicken the cream at home, see below.
