Fermenting Fantastic Food

Monthly Archives: November 2012

Fermentation Basics – Cultured Butter and Real Buttermilk

November 28, 2012 – 8:37 am

 

Fresh butter is chilled and about to be molded

Making cultured butter is as easy as making crème fraîche and getting your food processor dirty.  There.  I just gave you the recipe.

If you avoid saturated fat, I suggest you avert your eyes now.  Or maybe click over here to become so much smarter.  Or here to laugh for a while.  But don’t continue reading if you don’t want to know how to make something that will inevitably increase your saturated fat consumption by about 6000%.

Okay now that you know what you’re getting into, I’ll give you the scoop. Of butter. Rimshot. Crickets.  But really, this is easy.

Ingredients:

1/2 recipe crème fraîche

1/2 t salt

1 c ice water

Process:

1. You just throw some crème fraîche or partially cultured crème fraîche into your food processor and turn it on.*

2.  Let it process for a few minutes (I go 4-6 minutes) until you can see rough butter chunks and some whitish liquid.  That liquid is the liquid gold we call buttermilk.

3.  Set a small, fine-mesh strainer or a strainer lined with fine-mesh cheesecloth over a bowl or jar and pour the contents of your food processor in.

4.  Push down on the butter with a spatula to get all possible liquid pushed through the strainer (don’t push so hard that the butter goes through, obviously).

5.  Once you have as much liquid as possible removed, pour the liquid off into a sealable container and stick it in the fridge.  You can use buttermilk for many things!

6.  Now, put your liquid-free butter back in your food processor, throw in a couple ice cubes or a few tablespoons of ice water. Blend again for a minute or two, until you see your butter chunks start to stick together.

Clockwise: needs a few more minutes, straining out the buttermilk, about to hit the fridge

7.  Strain out the liquid and discard.  That is butterwater, which is a word I made up just now, not buttermilk.  You could probably use it to make soup or as the liquid in your bread-baking if you wanted to.

8.  Repeat the processing of butter with ice water and straining 1 or two more times until your butter seems pretty much like unshaped butter. Add salt to taste (Less is more.  You can always salt it once it’s spread.) and run the processor again for 30 seconds to incorporate it.

9.  Take your solid butter out of the processor, press it into some paper towel to remove any remaining surface water.  The better you’ve been about straining out the water, the longer your butter will last.  Form it into the shape you like, or press it into a small jar.  Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for a few hours or longer.  If you put it in a jar, you can put water over the top of it to keep the air away.

10.  Once it’s chilled, it is ready to use!  You did it!

11.  (optional) I like to make my butter into fun shapes.  Adds to the table decor at brunch!

This is my husband! I have a cookie cutter of his adorable head. This is the only context in which I would call him a butterface.

*If you do not have a food processor, you can also use a well sealed container and a child whose hands you want to keep busy.  Just make them shake it hard for as long as it takes to make solid butter.  It will take a long while, and the butter will be soft, but hey, you kept a kid occupied and buttered your bread.  Not a bad night’s work.

Note: This post was scheduled in advance.  I’m currently visiting the wonderful country of Peru and have limited access to wifi and my own electronic devices.  If you comment and it doesn’t post or I don’t respond immediately, I apologize.  I promise I’ll catch up with you when I’m back in the country!

By Amanda | Posted in Basics, Dairy, Ferment, Probiotic, Vegetarian | Comments (3)

Fermentation Basics – Sauerkraut (and a variation)

November 25, 2012 – 9:01 am

This heirloom cabbage from Culton Organics weighed in at just over 8 lbs.

Sauerkraut is undoubtedly one of the simplest and best known ferments in America, especially if your family is a Polish/Ukranian/Austrian/northern French hodgepodge like mine is.  I also think sauerkraut is a gateway ferment.  People think they’ll try to make it once as a lark, or maybe they give in to peer pressure.  Then they realize how simple and delicious, how fun it is and they go to town.  Before too long has passed they’re making kimchi in the bathtub, finding themselves passed out in a pool of their own vinegar, stashing flasks of kombucha in that old pair of boots in the back of the closet and sneaking out of bed to make mead and miso by moonlight. I’ve seen it happen. (No, I haven’t.)

Sauerkraut isn’t something I make every week.  I really like it, but it tends to be a seasonal treat for me.  Its salty tang inevitably brings delicious memories of Christmas Eve eve (yes, two eves) to mind: watching my dad prepare the kielbasa and sauerkraut before sitting down to roll an imperial amount of gumpke (stuffed cabbage) over the course of an evening.

As with every ferment I’ve made more than a couple of times, I like to tweak the recipe whenever I make it.  With sauerkraut, I usually prefer caraway over juniper and I generally use mustard seeds if I have them on hand.

When I heard Sandorkraut speak at the Free Library in June, he mentioned talking to someone who included mashed potatoes in her sauerkraut.  Neat, right?  Never done it before.  I’m more of a sweet potato person than a potato person, so that’s what I used when I made this batch.  As always, use your discretion.  Too salty?  Add less salt!  Not enough “rye bread” taste?  Double the caraway.   Like it to remind of you of gin?  Add a few juniper berries.  Feeling funky?  Add some sliced or pureed ginger or a load of garlic!  The only essentials are cabbage and salt* so make it your own!

Note: This recipe is for one quart jar.  My usual quantity is about 8 lbs of cabbage (other ingredients adjusted proportionally), which makes a gallon. You can find the sweet potato variation below the basic recipe.

1 head/ 2 lbs cabbage per quart you want to make

4 t salt (adjust to taste)

1 T caraway seeds (optional)

2 t mustard seeds (optional)

1.  Cut out the core (or not) and rinse your cabbage well.  Remove 1 or more yucky outer leaves.  Reserve one, if you want. (see step 7)

2. Slice cabbage according to your preference.  Smaller pieces will require less time to release their liquid, larger pieces will take a bit longer and need more massaging.  I sometimes slice by hand, sometimes with the grater blade of my beloved Cuisinart and sometimes with the slicer blade.  This is completely a question of preference.

3.  Put the sliced cabbage into a large bowl.  Mix in salt.

4.  Massage the hell out of your cabbage.  You want it to release its liquid and change texture a bit.  If you have weak or arthritic hands or are just a lazy person, you can let your salted cabbage sit for 10 minutes.  That will get the cabbage to start releasing its juices, and make your squeezing efforts easier.

5.  When your cabbage feels a bit softer, and you have a decent amount of liquid in the bottom of your container, toss in your seeds, berries or other seasonings.

6.  Get your clean wide-mouthed jar and a wooden spoon and start packing!  Push that kraut in there as much as you can.  You want to end up with an inch of space at the top of your container.  You want your cabbage to be completely covered in its own juice.

After a week of fermentation, weight removed

7. (optional) Use the skanky outer leaf (especially the hard rib) to hold the cabbage beneath the surface of the liquid.  Just press a large piece of leaf into the jar until it fits above the kraut and below the jar ridge.  The leaf can be composted after fermentation has transformed your kraut.  The cool trick is that if there is surface mold, it will be on the leaf you’re going to toss anyway.  Preservation bonus!  You can also add a tiny bit of liquid from another, healthy ferment (older sauerkraut, kimchi, ginger beer starter, etc) to get things bubbling.  This is especially helpful in the winter when your space might be chillier than usual, but it is in no way necessary.

8.  Use a jar filled with water, a boiled rock, a plastic bag filled with leftover kraut juice or some other weight to keep your kraut below the surface of the liquid.  Set your jar aside in a place outside of direct sunlight and away from your other ferments.  If you don’t want to deal with weighting it, you can look in every couple days and push everything back down below the surface.  Be aware that if you forget to do this you WILL get mold.  It’s okay.  You can totally skim it and toss it, but it does freak some people out.

Place jar in jar. Push until cabbage is well-underneath liquid layer. Put a hat on it (rubberband goes around the threads of the bottom, outside jar to keep out flies and beasties).

9.  Wait four weeks to a couple months.  Feel free to taste along the way and find your perfect acidity level.  Mark it down for next time.

See how my top layer is sweet potato? Not good. Make sure your top SP layer is a good ways down so it doesn’t mix to the top. Sweet potatoes are much harder to submerge than cabbage!

SWEET POTATO VARIATION

Yes, the taters need cooking.  Raw potatoes are apparently unsafe to eat, even fermented.

Ingredients:

2 small/medium sweet potatoes

Process:

1.  Prepare kraut as above, through step 5.

2.  While cabbage is sweating, make your mashed sweet potatoes.

3.  I make mine by microwaving (egads) for 10 minutes or until very tender, flipping once, but you can boil or bake them if you’d like.  I also removed the skins once they’ve been microed, but that’s up to you too.

4.  Puree or mash sweet potatoes

5.  Now start filling your jar.  This amount of sweet potatoes will give you enough for two layers, so I start with kraut, then a thick layer of sweet potatoes, then kraut, then potatoes then kraut.  You want to make sure you have a very good thick layer of kraut on top, so that when you push down to bring up the juices, the kraut and potato don’t mix (like mine did).  Alternatively, you could mix it all together before packing it into your jar

6.  Make sure that cabbage liquid covers the jar contents and go back to steps 7-9 above to finish it off.

 

I’m always happy to help with troubleshooting!

*salt may be optional

Cabbage is sexy

By Amanda | Posted in Basics, Ferment, Probiotic, Sandor Katz, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , | Comments (6)

Fermentation Basics – Keeping Sourdough Alive

November 24, 2012 – 10:33 am

Loafin’ around

Sourdough is really bread that has been leavened with starter (natural yeast), rather than with commercial yeast.  It is delicious, has some terroir and if you like sour dough (or not!) you can control the sourness by how often you feed it.  I use a desem starter.  The desem culture originated in Belgium, as the Belgian answer to the French pain au levain (aka French not-so-sourdough).  It is meant to be fed whole wheat flour and eventually, to make whole wheat bread.

I’ve had mine for almost 3 years now, though I did accidentally use it all up one time.  I don’t count that because I’d given some to a friend beforehand, and she gave some back to me after his death, so I like to think of that as my culture going off to get a little culture, then coming back home.

Personally, my favorite way to start starter is to get some from a friend.  I love that the bread you bake will have a sense of history and community, and a little bit of the character of your friend’s home, too.  It’s really easy to make your own if you don’t have a friend with starter.  Here’s a great tutorial from Serious Eats.  If you live in Philly, I’m happy to share mine since I ALWAYS have extra.

The key to sourdough is regular feedings.  I think of mine as a pet so I feel bad when I don’t feed him.  Also, since he’s Belgian, I call him Hercule. Get it?!

I use my iPhone reminders feature for all of my ferments, otherwise people (okay, ferments) die.  And it feels horrible, like when you kill a plant you grew from seed.  An established starter should be fed at least weekly, and refrigerated between feedings.  If you keep your starter on the counter, it should be fed daily. In the summer heat, I could stand to feed him twice a day, but he generally gets by on one.  The only reason to keep your starter out  is to have it ready to use.  If you’re not baking bread everyday, by all means, keep it in the fridge except for those essential weekly feedings.

Feeding process:

Take a small amount of starter.  I like to go by weight, but you can also do volume, no problem.  I take 3 oz. (you could do a quarter cup, say) of starter, add 3 oz. of whole wheat flour and 3 oz. of water.  I like my starter a tad wet, but if it gets too wet or too dry, you can add a small amount of extra flour or water to get it back to your preferred wetness.  Obviously if you’re about to bake a big loaf of bread or make multiple pizza doughs, you’ll want to reserve a larger amount of starter to feed so you end up with enough finished product for your recipe.

That’s it! Let it sit at room temperature or slightly warmer for 12-24 hours and then do the above process all over again (or stick it in the fridge).  There are many ways to use that extra starter that inevitably starts to pile up.  Here’s a link to my favorite way to use that extra starter so you don’t need to trash it.  Extra starter will store fine in the fridge for a week or more, but it does get increasingly sour the longer it’s there.

If you get tired of feeding your starter, are going on vacation or just won’t be using it, you can store your starter in the fridge for a week with no problem.  Just feed it  at 12 hour intervals once you’re back and it will be back to normal and ready to use!

Once you have a good amount of starter bubbling, you can make delicious things, like bread!

The tasty final product, courtesy of Hercule

By Amanda | Posted in Basics, Ferment, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Fermentation Basics – Kombucha

November 22, 2012 – 10:05 pm

SCOBYootiful

If you have been in the US since the 1990s, you’ve likely heard about the outstanding health benefits of kombucha.  I can’t speak to the miracle claims from personal experience, except to tell you that if you are experiencing a post-Thanksgiving food or drink hangover, skip the self-recrimination and go for a gigantic slug of the big K.  I can feel myself getting my soul back as it moves through my system.  And there is actual science that says kombucha supports liver function.

Making kombucha is super simple once you get the key element: the SCOBY.  SCOBY is an acronym for Symbiotic Community of Bacteria and Yeast (cute, right?) and it is sometimes called the mother or the mushroom.   The best place to get your own scoby is from a friend or fellow fermenter.  If you live in Philly, I’m happy to share!  SCOBYs auto-reproduce in the kombucha-making process, so anyone who regularly makes kombucha will probably have an extra or two laying around.  The SCOBY plus a bit of kombucha from the last batch will get you started.  I got my most recent SCOBY from Allyson Kramer, the amazing blogger and photographer at Manifest Vegan.  She is also the author of the cookbook I’ve been using to make my friends and family crave gluten-free, vegan food for the past several months, Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats.  (Seriously, I made dudes watching football unknowingly devour gluten-free vegan things and ask for more.  Buy this book!)  I can honestly say this is the best SCOBY I’ve ever had, it makes babies like a (vegan?) mofo and produces the most delicious kombucha I’ve ever had, bar none.  I used to be a sometimes ‘boocher, but with this SCOBY, I’ve started experimenting with constant fermentation and making a batch every week.

Once you have your SCOBY and your starter kombucha, you are ready to go!  Don’t freak out about the sugar. It gets partially or entirely converted (depending on how long you let your big K ferment) and your guts will thank you for giving them all the healing bacteria and the glucaric acid which may help the liver function more efficiently (see previous hangover comments) and may have anti-carcinogenic properties.

Makes 1 gallon of kombucha.  You can adjust batch size to your needs/projected hangover level.

A note on carbonation:  The best way to get super bubbly ‘booch is to do secondary fermentation. Your kombucha is done when the sweet/sour level is where you like it, not when it’s bubbly.  That said, in the warmer months, your bubbles may be vigorous in the first round of fermentation.  See after the recipe for the simple secondary fermentation how-to.

Recipe after the jump.

Read More »

By Amanda | Posted in Basics, Ferment, Probiotic, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (4)

Countertop Kimchi Class – The Return

November 13, 2012 – 1:23 pm

From top:
Korean tacos in the making, spicy kimchi, mild (or water) kimchi

Not to be too kimchis-y (I’m trademarking that), but I really loved the students at my first kimchi class.  They were super engaged and in the week+ since class, they’ve asked me for grains and starters and they’ve even continued to email me about their progress on different ferments they were inspired to try after kimchi class.  I was so inspired by them, that I decided to try and shove another kimchi class onto the calendar before the end of the year.  I’m leaving town for a while, so this is really my last chance for 2012, but more on that later.

This is the same deal as last time.  We will cover the basics of fermentation and of kimchi-making when you don’t have access to a yard full of huge, ceramic urns, a spare bathtub or even a crock.   You will get your hands dirty.  You will take a jar home with you to witness the joy of a bubbling jar.  You will, hopefully, be inspired to keep fermenting!

If this appeals, here is the link to buy tickets.  As with last time, I’m not making money.  I am totally covering my own costs, however.  I love spreading the good, fermenty word, but I can’t do it if I’m losing money in the process.

Top this off for your own better-than-foodtruck Korean tacos

Here’s some stuff you can do with kimchi:

  • Kimchi mashed potatoes
  • Add it to your relish tray
  • Chop and mix it into your cheeseball instead of olives
  • Mac and Kimchis (Great vegetarian Thanksgiving main!)
  • Korean Tacos
  • I’m stopping there because why would you need more ideas?

Anyway, come join us on Sunday!  We’ll have fun and your guts will thank you (by being silent).

By Amanda | Posted in Basics, Ferment, Fermentation Class, Probiotic, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (6)

Fractal Pickles

November 12, 2012 – 10:36 am

These pickles are fun even if you hate geometry!

This weekend I attended Philly BarCamp, if you don’t know what BarCamp is, you should check out this link.  It’s an excellent, fun, nerd-filled unconference in which participants show up to learn and teach.  If it sounds a little chaotic, it is.  This year, we had a great app to help manage sessions and schedule, which was enormously convenient.

I attended some truly wonderful sessions, including one on language and design, one on Net Neutrality and how screwed we pretty much are and one on expertise.  These sessions were so good, that when I decided to give my own semi-unplanned fermentation talk late in the afternoon, I was actually quite nervous.  I say “actually quite” because I really enjoy public speaking, and there are few things I like talking about more than fermentation.  But it turned out fine!  I had a really active and inquisitive group that grew rather than shrank as my talk continued.  And though I might have scared some people with my political angst about anti-bacterial soaps and the American fear of mold and microscopic life, I hope at least most people learned something.  I plied them with samples of apple cider kefir, kimchi, desem sourdough bread and carrot and radish pickles.  As a bonus, I’ve been invited to join up with a few people as the Head of Food Preservation when the zombie apocalypse inevitably comes.

So, in honor of BarCamp, and the many awesome nerds who gave their participation, time and expertise to make it a great day, I give you a ferment every nerd can love:  a fractal pickle!  Be warned, this is an advanced pickle.  Not because making this is in anyway challenging, but because sometimes cauliflower, broccoli and their close  relatives have an especially funky odor in a lacto-fermented pickle.  I love it!  But you might want to try a smallish batch to make sure those you feed will like it too.

 

On their way to funkytown

Fractal Pickles

2 small heads romanesco broccoli, or any other fractable (get it? fractal + vegetable) you find at the farmers’ market

4-8 cups of brine, depending on the size of your container (I used a half gallon jar, tightly packed and used about 7 cups of brine)

  1. Rinse Romanesco well
  2. Pull heads apart into individual points
  3. Pack heads tightly but carefully into container.  Avoid crushing or breaking them
  4. Pour brine (I like 1T of salt: 2 c water) over vegetables until they are totally submerged
  5. Place a weight (a rock, my ghetto jar submersion system, your crock weights) on top of vegetables to make sure they remain underneath the surface of the brine
  6. Place jar in a room temperature spot away from direct sunlight and other ferments
  7. Let it sit for 1-3 weeks, depending on your acidity preference
  8. Go look at pictures of other beautiful fractals or learn about them from the master
By Amanda | Posted in Ferment | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (4)

Fermentation Basics – Water Kefir

November 7, 2012 – 1:09 am

Maple water kefir at the start and end of fermentation

I kind of cheat on water kefir.  Although most of the sugars are converted, it is still a pretty sweet  drink which makes it an occasional treat in our house rather than an everyday ferment.  (The sugars that are left are converted to fructose, which is why it’s still so sweet.  I learned that on Cultures For Health.)  I always have extra milk kefir grains floating around (pun intended) so rather than buy separate water kefir grains for my monthly water kefir batches, I just repurpose my milk kefir grains to make some bubbly, probiotic-rich, offbeat-flavored faux-soda for my husband.

I like to do it in a clear, sealable container.  This allows me the fun of seeing the grains bubble up to the top and fall as fermentation takes place!  Water kefir needs a little longer to ferment than milk kefir does, so be prepared to give your kefir at least 24 and up to 48 hours to complete fermentation.

Water kefir is very versatile, so I recommend experimenting with different sweeteners and flavors.  I love using maple syrup, and I’ve done honey, although the experts say honey can damage your grains (since I’m using extras, I’ll take the risk for that flavor payoff).  You can use any type of sweetener you like!  Just make sure it is well-dissolved and mixed into the water before you add your grains.

A couple of notes: since these grains are intended for cow’s milk, you should put them back in cow’s milk and let them kefir before using them again in juice or sugar water.  Think of them as bees; while they may survive off of sugar water, they will only thrive on the honey that nature intended for them.

If you have access to unpasteurized juice you can just throw the grains right into the juice.  This is very satisfying and tasty, but I’ve had

limited success with store bought juices which are generally pasteurized.

As with most ferments, if your water smells chlorinated, chances are you don’t want it touching your grains.  A good water filter can take care of the problem.

Finished, slightly effervescent maple kefir

Make it bubbly!

Process:

  1. Add 1/4 cup of preferred sweetener to preferred container (a quart jar works well). I’ve used molasses, maple syrup, white sugar, rapadura and honey.
  2. Add 2 3/4 cups of water and stir/shake thoroughly until sweetener is completely dissolved (if using granular sugars, you might want to heat a small amount of water to help dissolution. Just make sure the water is totally cooled before it gets anywhere near your kefir grains!)
  3. Rinse 1-2T milk kefir grains under filtered water to remove milk residue, add to container
  4. Close container and let mixture sit at room temperature for 24-48 hours, away from direct sunlight
  5. Once it’s kefired, I like to strain out my grains and pour the liquid into an airtight bottle.  It will get bubblier in the fridge.  Like I said, delicious, probiotic soda!

For suggestions on how to flavor water kefir, go here.

Your grains will get dyed if you use a dark sweetener. Nothing to worry about!

By Amanda | Posted in Basics, Ferment, Probiotic, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (7)

Kimchi 101 and My Must-Haves

November 4, 2012 – 9:49 pm

Kicking off kimchi

Today marked my first kimchi-making class.  I had a wonderful time with a room packed full of 13 students.  IndyHall was kind enough to host us and my wonderful husband was kind enough to sous-ferment (or whatever you call it), making it possible for me to go crazy with my ramblings on all things fermentation.

This class got  me thinking: just about every batch of kimchi I’ve made has been different.  The constants for me are always brine, ginger, alliums and heat.

Brine: I always brine rather than sweat the vegetables (sweating is commonly done with sauerkraut) because I like to have bigger pieces of cabbage, and I prefer the flavor of brined kimchi to directly salted kimchi.  If you’re going to sweat the napa cabbage, you need small pieces, and that’s just a non-starter for me.  Adding salt directly also gives you less room to adapt the salt level.  You need a decent amount to get enough liquid off that cabbage!  If I had the space or, you know, an extra bathroom that was never touched by naked human flesh, I would definitely fill a bathtub with whole leaves, whole heads of cabbage or giant chunks.  Since I don’t have the space, I keep my chunks as large as is manageable for my countertop fermentation activities (about 2×2 inches).

Ginger: I LOVE ginger in all its forms.  One of my favorite non-kimchi ferments is ginger beer.  I drink it fresh and age it to bone dry booze.  I suck on fresh ginger at the first hint of belly upset and always have some candied ginger in my bag in case of emergencies.  So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when I made kimchi the first time and the recipe called for 1/2 inch of ginger, I added 3 inches instead.  Sometimes I add 6 inches, but I think that’s my limit.

Alliums: Garlic and scallions are musts in just about every kimchi recipe I’ve ever seen.  I take it overboard and throw in whatever else I’ve got from the allium family.  I often brine leeks with my cabbage and radish.  I usually throw an onion into the paste mixture and shallots have seen their way in a few times as well.

Heat: Okay, this is negotiable.  According to Sandor Ellix Katz in his AMAZING, must-buy book The Art of Fermentation in some northern regions of Korea, red pepper is not used at all.  I’ve read in several places that hot, red peppers didn’t reach Korea until the 1600s, but kimchi has a 2,000 year tradition, so if you’re going to be REALLY traditional, kimchi and hot pepper aren’t strictly linked.  I do like to throw at least a pinch (and sometimes a cup) of gochugaru (korean red pepper powder) or red pepper flakes into my kimchis.

Everything else has been in flux.  Yes, I usually use napa cabbage and daikon, but, don’t gasp, I’ve totally gone American style with regular old cabbage and cherry belle radishes.  I’ve included carrots, peppers, thin slices of cauliflower, kelp pieces and many more things from the vegetable drawer or garden that needed to get used.  I’ve made gruels of white rice flour, brown rice flour, wheat flour, no flour.  I’ve used ripe fruit in my paste blend. I’ve gone dead simple and left out all but the barest essentials.  To me, this is the beauty of kimchi; flexible rules that result in pure deliciousness every time and a tradition of using what’s good, seasonal and available in order to enrich your diet and the flavor of your dinner.

Do you make kimchi at home? How do you make it your own?

 

By Amanda | Posted in Basics, Ferment, Fermentation Class, Sandor Katz, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Crème Fraîche Whipped Cream

November 2, 2012 – 5:42 pm

Freshly whipped and ready to ride a pie

One of my favorite uses for crème fraîche is to make a simple whipped cream.  It is tangier than regular old whipped cream, it holds together better and, oh yeah, it sounds awesome when you say you topped your pie with homemade, whipped crème fraîche.  I’ve heard foodies gasp.  Really.  I got the idea from a Food52 genius whipped cream recipe from Nancy Silverton.  The idea that adding something a little acidic to whipped cream would make it set better stuck with me until it dinged that a straight crème fraîche would be easy and the perfect tang for sweet pies.

So put on your ready-to-impress pants and get out your mixer.

Creamy goodness in action

This is one case where you need to keep a close eye on the stand mixer so you don’t overwhip.  Then again, if you do overdo it, you can just make butter so really not that much of a catastrophe, is it?

I made my latest batch of whipped crème fraîche to top a pumpkin pie we brought to a friend’s amazing pumpkin carving party this past weekend.  It was fun!

 

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By Amanda | Posted in Ferment, Probiotic, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)