An extremely patient reader by the name of Bee put in a request several weeks ago about whipping cream. She asked me if I could demonstrate the differences between lightly whipped cream, cream whipped to “soft peaks” and cream whipped to “firm peaks”. Since I’m whipping cream (and talking cream) for this week’s topic, I thought now would be a good time.
By far the easiest way to whip cream is with a stand mixer or a hand mixer. You can do it with a whisk, but it requires a good deal of arm strength and stamina. You want to start with extremely cold, heavy cream, since cold milk fat holds it shape better when it’s whipped. Some pastry makers even chill the bowls of their mixers, which is an inconvenience, but a good idea. So then, pouring your cold cream into your cold mixer bowl, turn your mixer (fitted with a whip) up to medium-high and begin whipping.
After about a minute and a half, you’ll get foam, but a rather soupy sort of foam. Inserting a spoon…
…you’ll see it’ll just fall off it like so. You’ll see small mounds, but they’ll disappear pretty quickly. This is “lightly whipped” cream, great for chocolate mousse. I like to put it in my scone mixes, too.
Keep going another 30 seconds or so and the cream will get firmer. So much so that when you dip in the whip…
…then quickly remove it, you get rather tall “peaks” that quickly flop over. This is the “soft peak” stage.
Continuing on and the cream starts to take on an entirely difference character. Deep “trenches” start to form as the cream firms up and stops flowing:
This is often called “stiff peaks” though you really don’t get “peaks” when you remove the whip, just clumps of whipped cream. This is about as firm as I can whip this cream before it starts turning into butter, but there’s a separate tutorial for that.
I have a related, but different question: my hand mixer comes with two sets of beater attachments (and a whisk). The first set look like this, and I’ll call them the thick beaters: http://photo-dictionary.com/photofiles/list/3587/4744cooking_beaters.jpg. The second set look like this, and I’ll call them the thin ones: http://images.bedbathandbeyond.com/assets/product_images/230/6437011440320P.JPG
I almost always use the thin ones, because they seem to cut more easily through a heavy batter, and they aren’t as difficult to clean. But, what are the intended purposes of the two?
Hey, Jamie!
Those are simply the hand mixer versions of stand mixer beaters and whips. The wire ones are designed more for making egg foams and whipped cream, the thicker ones for batters. It’s really a matter of preference which ones you use. However whips generally incorporate a fair amount of air. That’s not always desirable (see this week’s crepe batter), so on occasion a heavier implement and a lower speed is what you need. Thank you for the good question!
- Joe
Hi Joe,
Your tutorial is really great!
Loving it ever since…. now, slowly going thru you tutorial.
My dilemma about whipping cream is that how to hold it for the longest time ever.
I’m from Malaysia which is on the equator line.. we have hot humid temperature throughout the whole year.
In a few occasion, I made desserts (eg: Pavlova) which required whipped cream. By the time I serve them; it’s no longer whipped cream but more of a runny cream.
How would you overcome this dilemma?
Great job with the tutorial and website.
Jacob
Hi Jacob! I definitely understand, and I would suggest adding gelatin to give it more body. Look under “Icings and Frosting” in the “Pastry Components” menu. There you’ll find a post on stabilized whipped cream. Let me know how it goes!
Cheers,
- Joe