Best Whipped Cream
January 16, 2017 | By Jeremy Scheck | Leave a Comment
Never again buy gross whipped “cream” out of a can. Many store—bought “whipped toppings” do not even contain real cream. Who wants to be eating stabilizers and propellants when they could be eating the real deal? You can make this in minutes by hand or with a mixer. You can make more or less whipped cream by simply adding more or less cream. Keep in mind this may affect how much sugar you want to add. Whipped cream is best made minutes before you eat it but if you use heavy cream (as opposed to heavy whipping cream), it will stay better longer in the refrigerator.
ASB Basics: Best Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup of heavy cream (also called double cream and has a 35-40% butterfat content) I MUCH prefer heavy cream to heavy whipping cream. Heavy whipping cream has less butterfat (which is replaced with artificial stabilizers) and tends to disintegrate and weep. Heavy cream is creamier and holds its shape much better while being soft and delicious.
- 1--3 tbsp confectioner's sugar, granulated sugar, caster sugar, or vanilla sugar (to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or any other flavorings---I love strawberry puree)
Instructions
- You can make this by hand with your biggest balloon whisk, with electric hand beaters, or with a stand mixer. No matter which you are using, place your whisk, metal beaters, or whisk attachment in the freezer with your metal mixing bowl 5 minutes prior to making your whipped cream. The colder everything is, the faster and better your cream will whip.
- After everything is well chilled, remove the bowl and whisk from your freezer and the cream from your refrigerator and
- Pour your cream, sugar, and vanilla into your chilled bowl. Don't worry about being too exact with the sugar, you can always add more. Reserve a few tablespoons of cream in case you over-whip you cream.
- Starting slowly and gradually increasing your speed, whisk or beat until the cream is noticeably thicker, about 2-4 minutes. If you are whisking by hand, the best way to do this is with a fast, side-to-side motion.
- Beat until your cream reaches soft peaks. This means that when you remove your whisk from the cream, some cream clings to the whisk and any "peaks" created by removing your whisk quickly soften. If you plan on piping your whipped cream, you will want to reach medium or stiff peaks by beating slightly longer.
- After you reach soft peaks, whip with low speed as your cream will quickly reach medium and stiff peaks. If your cream becomes grainy, you have over---whipped it. To correct, add a few tablespoons of unwhipped cream back into your whipped cream and mix it back to the consistency you want.
With my mixer on high speed, this takes me about 4-5 minutes in total. With my giant balloon whisk, this takes me 5-6 minutes.
Jeremy Scheck spent high school perfecting his signature cupcakes, making quiches and coffee cake by the dozen at a local bakery, and teaching cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma. As a 10th grader in 2016, he began documenting his favorite recipes on a blog called The After School Bakery. In college, Jeremy learned to make 50 gallons of ice cream in the food science lab, how to prune grape vines in the teaching vineyard, the best way to milk a cow in Northern Italy, and why film photography is an art worth saving. As a sophomore in 2020, he traded blog photos for video and became a TikTok culinary sensation. Jeremy has been featured on the Today show, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, BBC Radio, People, and Access Hollywood, among others. Jeremy is a graduate of Cornell University with a double major in Spanish and Italian, and significant coursework in food science. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about Jeremy.