Believe it or not, whipped cream is all over the news right now. After some confusion over a new nitrous oxide law in New York state, local shop owners erroneously thought they had to card people buying whipped cream cans to make sure they were 21 years or older. The national news cycle picked it up, thinking the story was legit since shop owners were seemingly carding people buying Ready Wip. Eventually, the state Senator who wrote the law had to step in and clear everything up.
Long story short (too late), the law is for nitrous oxide canisters that one would use in manual whipped cream dispensers (like the ones you see at Starbucks or other fancy bars/restaurants/dessert shops). People like to buy the little silver tubes of nitrous, crack them into a ballon, and have a zipping good time (or so I hear). To quell this misuse of rote kitchen equipment amongst New York’s youth, New York state enacted an ID law to buy the nitrous canisters, and shop owners misread that as all whipped cream cans. So, no, you don’t need your ID to buy Ready Wip in New York.
That did remind me, though, that whipped cream is about the easiest thing to master ever in the home kitchen. It’s also far better from scratch than any emulsifier-filled can of whipped cream. Hell, you don’t even need nitrous to make it at home (unless you’re using a snazzy whipped cream dispenser). In fact, my record to make whipped cream in a bowl with a whisk (back when I was working in kitchens) was just shy of 30 seconds. It’s really that fast and easy.
It also gives me an excuse to dust off this old GIF!
Let’s jump in and I’ll show you how to do it.
Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
Technically, you don’t need vanilla extract. The cream should have enough flavor on its own to be a nice accent to whatever you’re serving it with, though I like a dash of vanilla to give it a tiny bit more depth. Some folks add a pinch of sugar. I find that detracts from the natural flavor of the cream. It’s also likely you’ll be using this on something that’s already very sweet anyway. You don’t need extra sugar on top of that.
What You’ll Need:
- Large bowl (chilled in the freezer)
- Large whisk (also chilled)
- Measuring cup/spoon
Chilling your bowl and whisk helps speed the process up. Everything just comes together faster when ice cold. Keeping things super cold also lets the cream’s temperature stay stable.
Method:
- Add all ingredients to the pre-chilled bowl and whisk unit stiff peaks form (about one minute or so). Focus on moving your wrists with your arms close to your body in large motions through the cream, basically like you’re manically folding in the air. Always stir in the same direction. I stir away from me, basically pushing the whisk through the cream on the bottom of the bowl and pulling it back toward me over the top of the cream.
- Serve immediately.
Bottom Line:
And look at that, folks! Whipped cream and it only took one minute to make. Which was still way off my record of just under 30 seconds.
Still, this was perfectly good whipped cream in a minute. It’s really that fast. There’s basically no prep besides putting a bowl in the freezer and measuring some cream. All told, this was crazy easy for a whipped cream that’s far superior to anything out of a can. It was so airy and soft and you could taste the fat in the milk with a near butteriness to it. The vanilla adds a smooth underlayer that helps the cream really shine. Give it a shot!
