Thickening cream in a blender to increase fat content?
I've established that it's not possible(or a compromise at best) to mix other things in single cream to increase its fat content.
I have 25% and 30%(rarer) cream available where I'm at, and I'd like to have whippable cream with a fat content of 35% or more to use in homemade ice cream.
I've considered and rejected the following methods already:
- Adding gelatin. This recipe is vegetarian so gelatin is not an option. I have not tried agar-agar or carrageenan yet.
- Mixing butter in the cream or whole milk. This'll lead to a grainy ice-cream so, no.
Is a blender or food processor an option? If a cream can be thickened using a centrifuge, will a blender be powerful enough to thicken it by separating out the buttermilk?
If not, what else can I do? Heating the cream on a low flame?
Best Answer
The centrifuge doesn't thicken the cream by mechanical action, but by separating the fat and water by their different densities. The blender allows you to spin, but not to draw off either liquid. There's a chance that when allowed to settle you'll get layers, but you're more likely to make butter so you'd have to stop just in time, then let it settle.
It might be worth experimenting with freezing the cream - not until solid but until ice crystals form - and then allowing it to defrost in the fridge without stirring. This should break the emulsion and cause it to separate, hopefully into layers.
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Answer 2
The blender is not a centrifuge, and you will achieve the opposite effect. You will homogenize the milk further, as opposed to separating it.
In general, there aren't ways to "force" milk to become cream at home. Since you already have cream, if you just want it a bit more dense, you can instead add a bit of mascarpone while whipping.
Since you mention ice cream though, you don't need high-fat cream for that. In fact, pure whipping cream at 30-33% is too high fat for ice cream, so recipes will typically use a mixture of milk and cream instead of pure cream.
If you absolutely need thicker cream for another reason, you can buy unhomogenized cream without stabilizers and leave it in the fridge for a week or two before using it. Then you can separate the thicker layer on top from the thinner layer on the bottom. I mention this for completeness only, since it is usually more practical to buy the thicker cream.
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