How can you replace heavy cream 33. Cream thickener: how to replace it at home. What it is

Many housewives wonder what other product can replace cream in various situations. Gourmets are interested in ways to make a substitute on their own, existing recipes, and reviews from culinary experts.

What it is?

Cream is the fattest part of the liquid that has accumulated on top of already standing milk. The pasteurized product is not as thick as it is initially. Cream has high nutritional value.

The product contains a huge amount of vitamins, lecithin, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, and organic acids. The fat content of cream varies from 8 to 35%. Accordingly, calories range from 119 to 337, proteins - from 2.2 to 2.8, carbohydrates - from 3.2 to 4.5. The human body easily absorbs the product.

Heavy cream is often used to prepare confectionery products and various sweet creams. For these purposes, use products with a fat content of 20% or higher. The fattier the cream, the better it will whip. When whipped, the liquid turns into an airy mass of stable shape. Whipped cream is added to dessert, mousse. They are needed for baking and decorating cakes, pastries, sweet rolls and pies. Dishes acquire an exquisite taste and attractive appearance.

Unsweetened dishes are also sometimes diluted with cream. The product is often used to prepare casseroles, pasta, pizza and other dishes. Sauces for salads, fish and meat dishes also cannot do without cream. Liquid cream with 10–15% fat content is added to soups, gravy, and various sauces.

Substitutes

Instead of cream, you can use milk and sour cream. Ryazhenka, kefir, and yogurt that are on hand are also good for this purpose. The product can be replaced with condensed milk. It is an excellent substitute for whipped cream and is great for adding to sweet dishes and desserts. You need to beat 1.5 cups of condensed milk with a teaspoon of lemon juice with a mixer.

Sour cream and yogurt are mixed in equal proportions to obtain a thick cream for the cake. Custard is also sometimes replaced with whipped product. To make sweet creams, sauces and sponge cakes, it is best to choose sour cream instead of cream. It is similar to cream in terms of protein and fat content. Sour cream is rich in milk proteins and amino acids. The finished dish takes on a slightly sour taste.

Sweet caramel cream with cream is used to decorate cakes. If instead of cream you take 300 ml of sour cream, add 150 grams of butter, a glass of sugar and a little vanilla, you will get an incredibly tasty and thick caramel cream. Beautiful curls, patterns, flowers will not spread over the surface of the cake.

Regular milk can serve as a cream substitute for making sauces and batters. After heat treatment there will be no sour taste. Unlike sour cream, it will not curdle. If cream is needed to add thickness to the dish, then the milk must be thickened with flour or cornstarch.

Overweight people are advised to replace heavy cream with a coconut product. Coconut shavings should be poured with boiling water in a ratio of 1: 2, beat in a mixer. Then you need to strain the milk mixture. The product tastes like regular cream, but contains significantly fewer calories. To make vegetarian pasta, the product is replaced with avocado cream.

The best ghee comes from cream. The melted fat has the most delicate soft consistency. The product is transparent and without sediment. It is stored for a long time. Instead of cream, butter is useful. Place pieces of butter into a container one-quarter filled with hot water. The vessel is placed in a large saucepan of water and brought to a boil. Salt is added to ghee at the rate of 2 teaspoons per 1 kg of product. The product is infused, then the transparent layer of fat is poured into a clean container.

Self-production

Cream can be prepared at home - it won't take much time.

Step-by-step instruction:

Place a mixture of grated frozen butter (350 grams) and milk (2 cups) in a water bath;
When heating, constant stirring is required;
after heating, beat the liquid in a mixer until a homogeneous consistency is obtained;
Then the product is covered with film and left in the refrigerator for 12 hours;
Beat the milk mixture again until a thick foam forms, gradually pouring powdered sugar into it.

To obtain light cream, butter can be replaced with margarine.

Well-filtered sour cream through multi-layer cheesecloth, whipped with a mixer, is an excellent substitute for cream. Medium-fat sour cream, tied in gauze, is suspended overnight over a container into which the liquid drains. In the morning, place the weighed sour cream into a clean bowl. It is slightly denser than whipped cream, making it great for decorating iced coffee, cocktails, strawberries, cakes and other foods.

Often, cream for decorating sweets is made from butter (1 pack), powdered sugar (1 cup) and sour cream (200 ml). After thorough beating, the dessert is covered with the mixture. Buttercream can be made by beating a banana with egg white. Then you should add a little sugar and vanilla.

Condensed milk is mixed with butter in a 1:1 ratio. When using a cream substitute from condensed milk, less sugar is added than is necessary for sweet pastries. This product gives the dough a gentle looseness and crumbliness.

A standard pack of cottage cheese, mixed with milk powder (4 tablespoons) and whipped to the consistency of thick cream, is added to soups, casseroles, and gravies. To prepare soufflé, recipes use a substitute made by mixing milk (0.5 cups) with powdered sugar (200 grams) and pureed fat cottage cheese. You can make a thick mixture using gelatin: 20 grams per glass of liquid.

Recipes with substitutes

To prepare a delicious Bechamel sauce, take milk instead of cream and proceed as follows:

you need to melt 50 grams of butter, add the same amount of flour and fry a little;
Then you need to gradually add a liter of milk;
after 5 minutes, the mixture must be salted, add a little sugar, crushed nutmeg and black pepper;
the product should be brought to a boil, after which more butter (50 grams) is added.

This sauce goes well with pasta, meat and vegetable dishes.

The fudge is made by also using milk instead of cream:

0.5 kg of sugar is poured into milk, heated, not allowing the liquid to boil, stirring the contents of the pan periodically;
add 1 tablespoon of honey without stopping stirring the mass;
a piece of the finished hot mixture is dipped into cooled boiled water;
roll balls with palms;
As soon as the ball stops sticking to the palms, the product is ready.

Cheesecake, which has gained popularity in recent years, is made by replacing cream with fatty, non-acidic sour cream:

gelatin (20 grams) is poured with cooled boiled water (100 ml), infused for an hour;
crushed sugar cookies (300 grams) are mixed with melted butter (100 grams);
the resulting homogeneous mass is placed in prepared molds and sent to the refrigerator for 20–25 minutes;
gelatin is heated, but not allowed to boil;
weighed whipped sour cream is mixed with low-fat cottage cheese and gelatin;
cover the cookie base with the resulting mixture;
keep in the refrigerator for another 3 hours.

Sometimes you want to cook something special, to please yourself and your family, but one of the main ingredients, namely cream, is not at hand. At this moment the question arises: what can replace cream in the desired recipe? There is no need to get upset ahead of time, because you can replace them or prepare them yourself. And the price in the store for cream is higher than for other dairy products. If you learn to find an alternative to this ingredient, then the need to purchase it will disappear altogether.

What is cream

Cream is the upper part of settled milk, it is the fattest. They are usually liquid, only fresh ones have a thicker consistency than those that have been pasteurized. In this form, the dairy product is perfectly accepted in sauces and added to baking dough, mousses, and casseroles. Whipped cream is used to prepare sweet dishes. The product becomes airy due to whipping.

Cream can be regular (with a fat content of 10–20%) and full fat (35% or more).

They are very nutritious, because in addition to fat they include a large amount of proteins and carbohydrates. Contains vitamins A, PP, B, E, calcium, sodium, phosphorus. They are absorbed by the human body quite easily.

Substitute Products

What can you replace cream with if you don’t have any on hand?

A whole range of dairy products, for example:

milk;
kefir;
sour cream;
yogurt;
fermented baked milk;
condensed milk.

Condensed milk. Of course, the choice of product used will depend on the dish being prepared. Condensed milk, for example, is an excellent substitute for whipped cream in dessert. To do this, take one and a half glasses of condensed milk and 1 tsp for one serving. lemon juice, beat everything together with a mixer.

Sour cream. Many people doubt whether it is possible to replace cream with sour cream. Without a doubt! These two ingredients are similar in their high fat content. It is best to use sour cream to prepare biscuit dough, sauce or sweet cream.

The peculiarity of this product is that it leaves a slight sour taste in the dish, but many people even like it.

Sour cream is also used in the preparation of the following dishes:

creamy puree soups;
berry and fruit cocktails;
salad dressings;
meat or fish for stewing.

By the way, some housewives like to add processed cheese with a creamy taste to creamy soup instead of cream. To make it healthier, try adding the following mixture to the cream soup: milk, sour cream and butter (equal parts).

Kefir, yogurt, fermented baked milk. For a liquid dough, you can safely use kefir of any fat content, and for a thick dough - 10% yogurt or fermented baked milk.

Milk. Then the question arises: is it possible to replace cream with regular milk? Although it is not too fatty, it is an excellent substitute for cream in some dishes. The product is suitable for both batter and sauce. Its advantage is that during heat treatment it does not immediately curdle like sour cream and does not give a sour taste.

How to cook it yourself

If you suddenly want to make your own cream, it won’t be difficult to do, it just takes a little time:

Take 400 g of frozen butter and grate it on a regular grater, then mix it with milk (400 ml) and place it in a water bath;
The heating temperature should be such that the butter melts, but the milk does not become too hot. While the mixture is heating up, it needs to be stirred. When the liquid heats up, it must be transferred to a blender and blended until the consistency becomes completely homogeneous;
Now you can add homemade cream to any dish where it is needed. Before you begin the process, you need to consider the fat content required in the recipe. It is advisable to prepare any cream from full-fat milk and butter, and then dilute it with milk as needed, thereby reducing the fat content;
If the housewife needs whipped cream, for example, for a confectionery product, she can also easily make it;
Having prepared and beat the milk-butter liquid with a blender, cover it with film and place it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours;
After this, the dairy product is whipped with a mixer until thick foam, adding powdered sugar in the process.

For the sauce

Milk is what is usually used to replace cream in sauces and other savory dishes.

Let's take Bechamel sauce as an example:

Place 50 g of butter in a thick-bottomed bowl, melt, add the same amount of flour and fry until light golden brown;
Then you need to pour in 1 liter of milk, but not immediately, but gradually, stirring constantly;
Let the ingredients in the sauce thicken, cook it for 5 minutes, add 10 g of sugar, a pinch of salt, ground black pepper and nutmeg;
The resulting mixture is filtered, then brought to a boil again and more butter (50 g) is added. Usually this wonderful mixture is complemented with meat and potato dishes;
But you can also use the product in dessert, if you add not 10, but 150 g of sugar, and at the last stage of preparation add 5 beaten yolks;
To create thicker sauces, cream is often replaced with full-fat sour cream, sometimes fermented baked milk, kefir or natural yogurt;
You can thicken the gravy with flour, adding 0.5 tsp at a time. and stirring until the mass reaches the desired density.

Here is one of the simplest recipes for sauces with sour cream: mix half a glass of the main ingredient with sugar (10 g), lemon juice (a few drops), a pinch of salt and pepper. Lemon juice in this case is used as a thickener. In this recipe, the gravy is not subjected to heat treatment; it is simply added to meat dishes. It turns out simple and tasty.

For a sweet dessert

We've sorted out the unsweetened dishes, but what is usually used to replace cream in baked goods is another question. Most often, in baking, instead of the original ingredient, milk or kefir is used to obtain a more liquid consistency, and yogurt is used for a thick dough. But in preparing sweet pastries, an excellent alternative is condensed milk mixed with butter (1:1). When you put condensed milk in the dough, you need to take into account that it is sweet and add less sugar than indicated in the recipe.

Creams are made from fatty products, so sour cream with a fat content of 35% or more is best. A little fresh lemon juice is added to it, after which it becomes thick and can be used as cream.

There is one good way to get a delicate, airy cream: put the sour cream on gauze, folded in several layers, let it sit for one night, and beat it in the morning.

To get a thick cream for the cake, mix yogurt with half and half sour cream. Custard is often used to decorate confectionery products if whipped cream is not available. For souffle-type desserts, mix milk (100 ml), powdered sugar (200 g) and pureed high-fat cottage cheese (500 g). To thicken the mixture, add gelatin - 20 g per 200 ml of water.

If you don't have cream, consider available substitutes in coffee, baked goods, soup, sauce, cream and ice cream.

In baking

Any dairy and fermented milk products.

It is even possible to use reconstituted (powdered) milk. In this case, add a little butter or butter substitute for fat content.

Sour cream is the best substitute for cream in baking. Dilute it by about a quarter (depending on fat content) with water.

If you use condensed milk, in addition to adding butter, cut the sugar in the recipe.

Butter.

Oil.

Any, including spread, coconut oil or margarine.

Spices.

For example, cloves, cinnamon, vanillin, nutmeg, ginger, anise (star anise), cardamom, bay leaf, black pepper and even salt.

Fruit pulp.

The best combination with coffee is mashed banana and orange juice. You can add 1/2 tsp per mug. lemon juice or citric acid on the tip of a knife.

Cognac.

For one cup of coffee, add 2 tsp. cognac

Cheese.

This substitute is popular in Finland. Only fatty varieties are suitable. Place a cube of cheese and sugar (optional) at the bottom of the glass and pour hot coffee over it.

Sweet omelette.

Coffee with sweet omelette is popular in Vietnam. Beat the egg yolk with 2 tsp. condensed milk, add 1 tbsp. l. warm, but not hot coffee and beat again until smooth. Add this mixture to hot coffee.

Cream is a dairy product obtained from whole milk by separating the fat fraction. Before the invention of separators, cream was obtained by pouring settled milk into special containers with a tap at the bottom, hence the name “cream”.

Who doesn't like cream today? They are ways to decorate the taste of many dishes, but at what cost this is achieved...

Cream

- a real storehouse of saturated fats, and all their usefulness will come to naught due to excessive calorie content. So heavy and heavy cream, although tasty, is clearly not the best option for a healthy diet. This is especially true for people with lactose intolerance and vegetarians.

For those who love creamy dishes and are looking for something to replace cream with, we can recommend vegetable substitutes!

Avocado

This fruit contains a creamy fatty base, which allows it to be considered an ideal substitute for cream and milk. It can also be used in baking and making delicious sauces. And one of the most famous dishes with avocado is vegetarian pasta.

Beans

Once you grind the beans into puree, you can create a dish in the form of the much-desired cream soup. Canned white beans are best suited for these purposes. It will also resemble cream in color, and its mild taste will allow the dish to remain initially piquant.

Bananas

They say that frozen bananas can successfully replace ice cream. To do this, you need to place several ripe bananas in the freezer, in a container, after peeling them. As soon as you want to taste something sweet, you need to blend a couple of bananas in a blender, and then add a little peanut butter to this mixture. A couple of hours in the freezer and you get delicious vegetarian ice cream with only 150 calories.

Coconut milk

A fairly simple and convenient option for replacing cream. But still, don’t forget about fat content. Coconut milk, like cream, contains quite a lot of high-calorie saturated fat. So although this cream substitute can add a creamy taste to a dish, you still shouldn’t indulge in the luxury of using coconut milk. You can try making desserts from chilled coconut cream.

Roots

You can add mashed root vegetables to sauces and spicy dishes. We are talking about celery or sweet potato roots. Their consistency will be similar to cream, which is what the goal is to replace. Puréed root vegetables will pair well with white beans and nutritional yeast to create creamy sauces.

What is cream
Substitute Products
How to cook it yourself
For the sauce
For a sweet dessert
Dietary ingredient