Can you make whipped cream with half and half

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Can you make whipped cream with half and half?

If you can, what, if anything, do you have to do differently?

Best Answer

A general rule-of-thumb is that a butterfat content of 30% or more is required to produce whipped cream. Half and half (called half cream in the UK), which is comprised of half milk and half cream has a butterfat content between 10 - and 12.5% butterfat, based on various sources discovered in my research.

That being said, I've read that half and half can be foamed by beating it and can even achieve some very soft creaminess if whipped while almost frozen. It certainly would not taste like whipped cream or have the rich mouth feel of whipped cream - at least without adding something to stabilize the mixture which is beyond my experience.

As an aside, I have a "light, no-bake" cheesecake recipe that requires evaporated milk to be beaten but it must be thoroughly chilled before it will work.

Here is a link to a wikipedia page that includes a chart with explanations of all milk products:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream#section_3