Whipped Cream

CREME CHANTILLY

Yeah, yeah, everybody knows how to whip cream! I thought I’d explain it because I am sure there’s someone out there who is making dessert for the first time in their lives and has just never done it before 🙂 Also I love how it’s called Crème Chantilly, how could I not include something with such a beautiful name in my blog?!
I also was thinking that I always just whip my cream with icing sugar and vanilla essence and not often bother to do anything different with it (because I am so boring) so I thought I would make more of a conscious effort from now on!

 

INGREDIENTS

300 mls full cream (1 1/4 cups)
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste (or the seeds from a 5 cm/2 inch piece of vanilla bean)

 

METHOD

Using an electric beater on a medium/low speed beat all of the ingredients together until you reach your desired consistency. You can use a whisk (if you are in need of an arm workout, which I always am) but it takes ages and I would only do it if my beater is broken!…..but in saying that I do use one if I m whisking just a small amount as it can be quicker than getting out the beater 🙂

Cream is usually whipped until soft peaks are formed. If you pulled some up with a spoon it would flop back down a little bit but not totally disappear back into the cream. Soft peaks are great if you are whipping it to go with that apple pie you are having for dessert or to pile on top of that ice cream sundae. This ‘floppier’ soft peak stage will start to liquefy within a few hours but you can bring it back to life again with a quick whisking.

If you are whipping cream for something where you need the cream to be stronger and to hold it’s shape longer like filling a sponge cake or piping decorations onto a fancy tart I would whip it a bit further than the soft peak stage until it has stiff peaks (around 20-30 seconds longer). When at the stiff peak stage if you lifted some up with a spoon it would stay upright and not fall back down at all.

If you kept beating after you’ve reached the stiff peak stage (another 20 seconds) you will over whip the cream and it will curdle and go all grainy looking. It still tastes fine but doesn’t look as nice. You can fix it by adding two more tablespoons of cream and whisk it by hand to bring it back up to where you want it to be 🙂

This recipe makes around 2 cups.

Storage – Anything filled or decorated with cream should be covered and kept in the fridge for up to two days. Any extra, un-used cream is also best kept covered in the fridge and keeps better in a stainless steel bowl.

RASPBERRY SWIRL CREAM

This is a pretty cream I made by using some left-over Raspberry Coulis I had in the fridge.

After making the Crème Chantilly recipe above (but leaving out the vanilla essence) gently fold through 2 tablespoons of Raspberry Coulis. Be careful not to totally mix it in, just fold through once or twice with a spatula or large spoon so it has a marbled look……it looks gorgeous! You can also add 1 teaspoon of lemon zest if you like. It will go great with anything involving chocolate, lemon, banana and of course raspberries.

LEMON CURD CREAM

After making the Crème Chantilly recipe above (but leaving out the vanilla essence) gently fold through 3 tablespoons of Lemon Curd. Be careful not to totally mix it in, just fold through once or twice with a spatula or large spoon so it has a marbled look. You can also add 1 teaspoon of lemon zest if you like. It will go great with anything that goes with lemon, especially anything involving berries.