If you’re following a recipe for a cake or other dessert, sometimes you may come across heavy cream in the ingredients list. While cream is easy enough to find in the supermarket, using the wrong type in a recipe could lead to very different results. So, we spoke to an expert to get details on what sets heavy cream and other creams apart.
What is heavy cream?
“Heavy cream, which is the one that’s often labelled thickened cream in Australia, consists of about 35 per cent milk fat (or 35 grams per hundred ml),” says Trent Watson, Accredited Practicing Dietitian and Spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia.
“Often, it contains additives – gelatine, vegetable gums and this helps hold its shape when it’s whipped and that reduces the likeliness of curdling when heating.”
Is there a difference between thickened and heavy cream?
In Australia, heavy cream is commonly known as thickened cream; the two both contain similar milk fat content percentages and are generally interchangeable in recipes.
But if you have a recipe from the US, it’s worth double-checking the type of cream that’s required. This is because in the US, heavy cream is classified as having a milk fat content percentage of 36 to 40 and may be sold as “whipping cream”. This is more similar to “pure cream” in Australia, which has around 40 percent fat content.
Meanwhile, thickened cream in the US contains 35 percent milk fat content. And “double cream” contains more than 48 per cent milk fat content.
What do you use heavy cream for?
Heavy cream is often used for cake decorations and as a filling for pastries, because it’s able to hold its shape. If the cream has a milk fat percentage of 35 per cent or more, it whips extremely well and can double in volume, so it’s often used for topping and piping.
Sometimes thickeners like gelatine and vegetable gums are included to help with the whipping process while also ensuring the cream doesn’t separate or curdle.
As well as desserts, this type of cream can also be used in main courses. For example, this creamy chicken gnocchi requires 150ml of thickened cream, that is simply stirred into the pan of ingredients while a typical pavlova involves thickened cream, whipped with icing sugar to help create the topping.
What can you use as a substitute?
“There are a couple of substitutes you can use – things like Greek yoghurt or evaporated milk. The only other one, which would be suitable for vegans, is a blended tofu as a plant-based alternative,” continues Watson.
“The other alternative is use the half-half approach, whether it’s greek yoghurt and thickened cream or substitute half the cream with a low fat alternative.”
Can you make it from scratch?
“There are very few people out there who are going to be milking the cow and making it from scratch,” jokes Watson.
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