Ingredients
- Cold heavy whipping cream
Preparation
Step 1
You need it cold: In order for the fat droplets to adhere to each other and not melt, they have to be cold. Keep the cream chilled until you’re ready to whip it. You can give yourself extra insurance by freezing your cream, bowl or jar and beaters or whisk for 10 to 15 minutes — just make sure the cream doesn’t freeze, although the tools can hang out in the freezer for longer.
Decide whether to stabilize or not:
Whipped cream tends to be at its peak for just a few hours before it starts to weep liquid. In “Keys to Good Cooking,” Harold McGee says you can either drain off the liquid or fold it back in. If you want something more stable that will also hold up for a day or two in the refrigerator, you can add a stabilizer. In “Rose’s Baking Basics,” Rose Levy Beranbaum incorporates a teaspoon of cornstarch into a cup of whipped cream (it must be just brought to a boil, and then of course cooled, so the cornstarch can work its thickening and stabilizing magic). She also offers a version that adds a teaspoon of gelatin that is heated over the stove-top with a portion of the cream. Corriher’s self-described “sneaky way” gets gelatin into the whipped cream via an almost-melted marshmallow. She suggests one large marshmallow per cup of cream, which you want to quarter and heat either in the residual heat of a warm toaster oven or for just a few seconds in the microwave. The marshmallow pieces should be very soft. Whisk them little by little into your cold, already-whipped cream.
Pick your method: There are a number of ways to whip cream. The fastest involves an electric stand or hand mixer. Unless I’m doing large amounts of cream, I prefer the hand mixer, so that it’s much easier for the beaters to come in contact with all of it. There’s the old-fashioned method, of course, which is beating air in by hand with a balloon whisk. McGee says you’ll get even more air into the cream this way than you would with an electric mixer — not to mention an arm workout. You can also use a food processor or immersion blender to make whipped cream. Another way to get a denser, softly mounded cream is to use a jar. A pint or quart Mason jar works well, depending on how much you’re doing (a cup of cream for the former, two for the latter). Just shake away.
Know when to stop: I f t hat p roblematic Thanksgiving pie was one end of the spectrum, I’ve also gone the other way — overwhipped cream, which is basically butter. If you’re using a whisk or jar, there’s very little risk of this since you’re going much slower and you’re actively involved in the process. The danger grows once you start using a machine, especially a food processor or immersion blender, McGee says. It’s better to be safe than sorry, by which I mean it’s okay if you frequently stop your mixer to check your process.
How long you go is largely a matter of preference — softly whipped cream is lovely to mound on, say, a scone or pile of fruit, while stiffer whipped cream can be piped or even sandwiched inside a whoopie pie. The typical grocery store, ultrapasteurized cream will take longer to whip than pasteurized cream. Most of the language around whipping cream involves “peaks.” Soft peaks, medium-firm peaks, stiff peaks. I dip the beaters or whisk in the cream and lift up so that a peak forms where the tool was raised out of the cream in the bowl. Soft peaks will droop a lot, stiff will stay upright. If you’re shaking in a jar, I found a good tell is that when it sounds like the cream has stopped sloshing against the glass.
Flavor away: E specially i f you’re s erving the whipped cream with something very flavorful or sweet, you don’t have to add anything to it. Or you can choose to add sugar, 1 to 2 tablespoons per cup of cream. McGee says superfine sugar — add it once the cream begins to thicken — is ideal since it will dissolve more readily. Powdered sugar will also work. Flavor extracts (vanilla, almond, etc., 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per cup of cream) and even a little booze (start with 1 tablespoon per cup of cream) work well, too. Incorporate these additions as well after the cream has started to thicken, and taste to make sure you’re on the right track. Best to underdo it and then add more.
Freeze-dried fruit is a wonderful flavorful addition. Or try cocoa powder for a chocolate version. Citrus curds and syrups are fair game, too. What flavors don’t you want? Fridge odors. Because there is so much air in it, whipped cream is essentially a sponge and will soak up whatever aromas are floating around your refrigerator. So do cover it up if you plan to store it at all.