Each week, we drive to nearby Bend, Oregon and pick up our gallon of fresh, raw milk. It comes in a glass jar and you can clearly see the thick, off-white cream that’s risen to the top. Yum.
Often, I’ll come home and divide the milk into two half-gallon milk jugs (well, I get to it eventually anyway), making it much easier for our littles to pour and for Ian to take some to work when he has a shift.
Sometimes, though, I’ll skim off the cream and save it for something special, like homemade whipped cream or caramel sauce.
Homemade Whipped Cream
The former is a family favorite and my kids love the process of turning plain ol’ cream into sweet, soft white peaks they can’t wait to get their hands on. The process is simple and, if you’ve only got a few spare minutes, that’s plenty of time to make your own delicious homemade whipped cream.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup whipping cream (use what you get from your herdshare, or pick up some whipping cream from the store)
- 3 Tbsp powdered sugar (I like to put evaporated can juice in my Blendtec and turn it into powder)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
I like to whip up my cream in a metal bowl – the one you find on a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. If you don’t have a stand mixer (we don’t in the bus), you can use a metal bowl and a handheld mixer (you could also use a whisk if you have a lot of spare time and are in need of an arm workout).
Place the metal bowl in the freezer for about 10 minutes so it can get nice and cold before you add the cream.
Once it’s chilled, remove the bowl from the freezer and pour in your cream. Place the beaters inside the bowl and turn on your mixer. Start slowly, or use some kind of shield so you don’t end up with cream all over yourself.
After a minute or two of beating the cream on medium high, you should notice it starting to thicken. This is when I stop the mixer and add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Once added, turn the mixer back on and keep mixing for a couple more minutes.
Once you have soft white peaks, stop mixing. If you go too long, you’ll end up with butter.
Use copious amounts to top things like coffee, sweet potato apple casserole or anything else you can make better with whipped cream (like, pretty much anything).
Have extra cream? I suggest making some salted caramel sauce. Here’s my recipe.
So excellent. This will definitely be whipped up at the Miller house for Thanksgiving feasting next week!
Made the caramel sauce it turned out fantastic, and I normally suck at making candy. I’ll be making another batch for thanksgiving so I can make Salted caramel apple pie.
I made this the first time and it was awesome, but the second time I went a smudge darker… Bleh it’s awful really watch it carefully! Over cooked is inedible.
I’ve done that a few times, Christina. Thankfully, it was still good in coffee. Well, at least one batch was.
I can never get my raw cream to whip into whipped cream. Have you had this problem? Any tips?
This happens to us if we still have some milk mixed in. We just skim off the very top to make sure we don’t mix it.
Sorry if I missed it, but what is the best way to store the caramel sauce? My husband loves the stuff and I wanted to make some for him for a stocking stuffer this year. Thanks!
I put it in a glass mason jar, Christine, and store it in the fridge. If it were to hang out in his stocking for a couple hours, it would be fine. 🙂
Thank you!! 🙂