Have you ever wondered why your whipped cream pie’s topping turns to milk before you finish eating the pie? How do professional bakeries make their whipped cream so it stays solid? Why can’t you make your whipped cream stay pretty once you’ve whipped it? There actually is no mystery to making that shy, elusive perfect whipped cream.
Here’s what’s happening – the whipped cream that you see in these various situations has different additional ingredients that can make the consistency and longevity of your finished whipped cream exactly what you need. And just because you’re not a professional baker doesn’t mean you can’t use these ingredients, they are readily available in every grocery store. Follow the links to each recipe.
- Soft Whipped Cream is for immediate use on fresh strawberries, shortcake confections, hot chocolate, fruit pies and anywhere you just need a beautiful dollop of that rich creamy stuff to make it perfection. It’s a quick job, maybe with a little confectioners sugar mixed in for a sweet spoonful of airy deliciousness. Its simplicity and purity are ethereal. But it doesn’t last! The foamy bubbles that you have forced into the fatty cream escape once the cream warms up. It’s a fact of life. So use this version when you just want a few moments of whipped cream purity.
- Stabilized Whipped Cream uses a little cornstarch as a stabilizer gives the creamy bubbles a structure of sorts to hold on to. Whipped Cream stabilized with cornstarch is a very good step up from plain whipped cream. I like the vanilla in this version. It is the recipe that I use for group servings of desserts or when it is easier to scoop spoonsful of whipped cream into or onto a dessert, like strawberry shortcake (a favorite in my family!) Leave out the vanilla and you have a wonderful, soft yet stabilized whipped cream for tiramisu and other multi-ingredient desserts. My recipe combines cream, sugar, vanilla and cornstarch to make a spoonable concoction that you add to whipping cream as you process it. You can easily double it if you like, freezing the extra portion for the next time you will need a stabilized whipped cream.
- Sturdy whipped cream incorporates a small amount of gelatin, which enables it to last through room temperature displays for several hours. This is ideal for using to make cream pies or toppings for cakes served cold. Another great feature about Sturdy Whipped Cream is it is the most pipe-able of them all. You can actually add designs to your finished cream pie much like you would pipe icing to decorate a cake. What fun! If you have decorating tips, you are probably already smiling.
