Have I ever told you that I have a weakness for cream? Cream sauces, AH! To die for. Of course, I’m an equal opportunity cream eater, so I also love whipped cream on the tops of pies, cookies, brownies, ice cream, or anything else that will support its weight (which is just about anything). For years, whenever I wanted whipped cream on any dish, I had to choose between aerosol whipped cream, which tastes good, but goes flat almost instantly and Cool Whip, which holds its shape just fine, but doesn’t taste as good. Yeah, it’s a first world problem, so it’s not something I spent a lot of time stressing over.
However, a few years ago, I needed whipped cream for something and didn’t feel like running to the store. (Yes, I know, another first world problem.) I had some heavy whipping cream in my fridge and decided to try and make my own. Do you know what I discovered? Making homemade whipped cream is super easy! Not only does it taste better than frozen whipped topping and hold its shape better than canned whipped cream, it makes everything look like I spent HOURS making it. Not that I want to portray myself as someone who slaves for hours in the kitchen, but…
I’m going to let you in on my little secret. You, too, can look like a cooking expert with only a 5 minute time investment. Remember that rice krispie treat commercial with the mom sitting in the kitchen eating her freshly made rice krispie treats, reading a book, and telling her family the rice krispie treats were almost done? This is even easier than rice krispie treats (or my favorite, chex crispy treats,recipe here).
Homemade Whipped Cream
Heavy Whipping Cream
Sugar – 1 tablespoon for each cup of whipping cream, use more or less to taste
Mix sugar and whipping cream together. Beat until stiff peaks form which do not go away. Serve. When I am topping a particularly sweet dessert (like my son’s favorite cookie pie, recipe here), I put in less sugar. I put in a rounded tablespoon for 1 1/2 cups of cream.)
That’s it. Really! Here’s my photo step-by-step so you can make this lovely whipped cream at home.
Here are my ingredients. Make sure your whipping cream is cold and that your bowl is not hot fresh from the dishwasher. Mine was, so I rinsed it in cool water, dried it, and stuck it in the freezer for a couple of minutes to bring it to room temperature.
Add sugar to your whipping cream (1 tablespoon of sugar for each cup of whipping cream). I was making this whipped cream for my son’s birthday cookie pie (recipe here), and it is SUPER sweet, so I added less sugar (1 rounded tablespoon for 1 1/2 cups of cream).
Mix the sugar and cream together. I use a hand mixer, because it’s so much easier. My Kitchenaid stand mixer is even faster. I’ve made it by hand, too, with a whisk. It takes about 10 minutes, but it’s still worth it!
Turn your mixer on high or, when beating by hand, beat quickly with your whisk. The mixture will begin to thicken very quickly. This is about 20 seconds into mixing.
After about a minute, my cream thickened up quite a bit more.
After another minute or so, the whipped cream was getting really thick. You can tell it’s ready when you lift the beaters or whisk out of the cream and the “peaks” hold their shape.
It’s ready to use! You can store this in the refrigerator to use later as well.
I used it to top my son’s Delicious Birthday Cookie Pie (recipe here)!
