I used to live in Britain and I'm familiar with using Double Cream (48%+ fat) in all my recipes. However I moved to Canada a year ago and double cream doesn't seem to exist in North America. This has resulted in many of my recipes failing with the 35% heavy whipping cream as it doesn't whip quite thick enough; it won't hold up my cake tiers, and it goes oddly foamy in my pastries. Yet I've seen strongly thickened cream in stores and bakeries, so how are they thickening it?
I've tried googling this and have tried a few things, such as boiling the cream, and I've also tried adding corn starch (unless you want dry floury cream, never do this). I've also seen a couple of mentions of gelatin and stabilizers but don't know if that's the correct direction.
I'm starting to think I should buy my own cow. Any cream experts out there who can help?
Best Answer
Corn starch only thickens when heated to 180 F, so it probably is not helping at all with your whipped cream.
I live in the US, so I cannot compare to whipped cream in the UK. Whipped cream for cake fillings is often beaten almost to the breaking point to make the foam as thick as possible. I assume you are whipping the cream sufficiently, and it still isn't getting as thick as you would like.
If that is the case, you might try stabilizing the whipped cream with gelatin. The link is one of many I have found on a quick search, and it specifically calls for 35% cream.
This long chowhound thread also has some interesting thoughts and advise.
This ochef link also provides an interesting method of using creme fraiche.