Yesterday, after making pumpkin scones for (possibly?) the first time*, I whipped some cream by hand - definitely for the first time.
It was not so hard. Sure, I wasn't sure if it was working at all, but then you get that satisfying sudden transition from thick liquid to stuff so thick it's standing up by itself. I only needed a small amount, so a small metal bowl and medium sized whisk did it fine.
Given that this woman had trouble whipping, I'm pleased it worked for me first time.
* Not entirely sure they are worth the effort - it seems a common complaint, derived from the uncertain water content in mashed pumpkin, that recipes make for too sticky a dough to which a lot more flour has to be added. That happened to me, too; but then again, I did add more pumpkin than called for in the recipe I was sort of following.
What temperature do you think the cream was? That could be a decisive factor - the best temperature for turning cream to butter is said to be 12-18 Celsius - when people try to do it outside of that temperature range it can take them much longer. (Whipped cream is the step just prior to the formation of butter/buttermilk).
ReplyDeleteIt came out of the fridge, which keeps things at I don't know what temperature. I have in my mind that the average home fridge is about 4 or 5 degrees? Anyway, the cream went into a small, thin metal bowl and away I whisked.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that this, which I considered one of most boring comments in quite a while, attracted a comment!
By the way, my wife has made whipped cream more delicious in the past by adding a bit of Cointreau. Is good at Christmas, when consuming everything with alcohol is more of a "thing".
ReplyDeleteI should also have a lengthy discussion with you one day about how far you can push adding lemon juice to a cream sauce without it breaking the cream. I make a garlic lemon cream sauce for chicken that manages the trick, but I am not sure how. Perhaps the butter that is added too helps?
ReplyDeleteI was trying to make a white sauce for pasta with salmon in it on Saturday, and wanted to give it a lemon flavour, but was not sure if I could get away with it in a normal white sauce made on milk.
The type of cream you use probably affects it as well.... fat content and all that.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never had a problem with lemon interfering with the sauce; if you cook gently maybe it doesn’t matter too much anyway (the milk never gets to the +95 degrees where curdling happens.)