Creamy whipped cream with a hint of sweetness, it’s perfect for piping and decorating layered cakes, or making mousses or just as an accompaniment to tarts and many other desserts. To create whipped cream, dairy whipping cream is usually sweetened with sugar during beating.
Cream are categorized and sold according to the amount of milkfat or butterfat they contain. Light whipping cream has between 30% and 36% butterfat and heavy whipping cream contains 36%-40% fat, or even 42%. If a cup of cream in the supermarket labeled whipping cream, then most likely means light whipping cream. Both creams can be turned into whipped cream by beating them with air. The fat grobules in the cream then trap the air bubbles, resulting the foam, which is roughly the size of the original cream.

"Whipping Cream" with varied butterfat content

#30% Butterfat	#32% Butterfat
#33% Butterfat	#35% Butterfat

In Germany whipping cream (Schlagsahne) usually contains 30%-33% fat, if cream has 35% fat content, then it is probably labeled as “Schlagsahne Extra” (33% fat content from Eifel NRW ) or “Teesahne” with maximal 40% butterfat and “Crème Double or Doppelrahm” between 43% and 45% butterfat content. Cream has slightly lower butterfat content, between 25% and 29% are labeled and simply sold as “Sahne”. “Coffee cream or Kaffeesahne” here contains 10-15% fat. In UK, a cream labeled as “Double Cream”, must contain 48% butter fat, and 35% for a whipping cream. “Half Cream” with 12% fat content used only for coffee in UK is correspondent with German “Kaffeesahne”, while a 18% “Single or Light Cream” correspond to American “Half And Half. Ok, enough confusion. All you have to remember is that whipping cream with a fat content of 30% to 36% works best when making whipped cream. The higher the butterfat, the more flavourful and stable cream will be.

#Leaf Gelatin	#Soaked In Water

1. Cream is easier to whip up when cold. So start by chilling a large, clean mixing bowl (preferably stainless steel bowl which helps keeping cream colder), a beater or whisk, and the cream in the refrigerator overnight or until thoroughly chilled. To make sure they are VERY cold, I put the mixing bowl and beater in the freezer 15 minutes again before start whisking the cream. In summer time, place the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice water and whip the cream in the coolest place of the room. Turn on the air conditioner if you have one. While the bowl and beater are still in the freeze, prepare the stabilizer.
2. Submerge the gelatin sheets in a small bowl filled with cold water until softened, 3-5 minutes, then gently squeeze out excess water. If using granulated gelatin, add 2 tablespoons or just enough of cold water to the gelatin so that the liquid is thoroughly absorbed. Temper the bowl of softened gelatin inside another pan of very hot water, or heat it in a microwave on high for about 20 seconds. Stir the heated mixture until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and cool it to about the body temperature. Do not let the gelatin set.
3. Besides gelatin, the starch-based stabilizers, like RUF, Dr. Oetker, or Kuechle, can also be used to help stabilize the whipped cream. They are usually to be found in every supermarkets in Germany.
4. Whip cream either by mixer(handheld or stand) or by hand (not recommended though, especially when whipping a lot of cream; if you do, use a balloon whisk). To make life easier, I use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment to whip cream. Fill the well-chilled mixing bowl at least 1/5 full fitted with the well-chilled whisk with nice cold whipping cream, so that air can be incorporated quickly and efficiently with the cream.
5. To avoid cream splashing, start it off slowly until the mixture becomes soft and thicker. The cream drops from the whisk when it is lifted. Now it is the right time to add in extract and icing sugar (icing sugar contains cornstarch which helps stabilize the whipped cream) along the sides of the bowl, and continue to beat at medium speed. Slowly add in the dissolved gelatin all at once and beat until the cream holds soft peaks. The volume of well-whipped cream is about doubled. Overbeating will cause it to curdle and become butter.

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