Food Fight

What makes the best whipped cream?
(Hint: it’s not Cool Whip)

We’re talking cream here, real whipped cream, not nondairy whipped toppings loaded with hydrogenated vegetable oils, artificial flavors, and preservatives. We’re also not talking about aerosol cans of "real" cream, because all of the processing gives the cream a cooked taste and the texture is often foamy and unstable.

If you are really, really lucky, you may know someone with a dairy cow who will sell you unhomogenized milk (let it stand in the refrigerator overnight, and you can pour or spoon off the cream that has risen to the top). Most of us have to content ourselves, however, with the cream sold in the grocery store as "heavy" or "whipping" cream.

The more butterfat in your cream, the lighter and fluffier the whipped cream will be. The heaviest cream is usually about 36 percent butterfat or slightly higher. Cream that is 30 percent butterfat will whip, but may not mound up as well. Light cream (usually 15 to 18 percent butterfat) cannot be whipped successfully.

There are just a few secrets to well-whipped cream:

• Buy the heaviest, freshest cream you can find. Avoid ultra-pasteurized cream if possible (it has a cooked flavor, and sometimes simply won’t whip).
  
  
• Keep the cream cold. Also chill the bowl and the beaters you will be using. Unlike egg whites, which attain their highest volume if whipped at room temperature, cream does best cold.
  
  
• Heavy cream will double in volume, so keep that in mind when choosing a bowl. A high, narrow bowl will help prevent spattering. Whip the cream (by hand or with a mixer) until it is thickened and fluffed up.
  
  
• If you want sweetened or flavored cream, add confectioners sugar or a splash of vanilla after the cream has started to thicken but before you have achieved maximum volume.
  
  
• Do not overbeat, or you will discover that you have churned your cream into butter. If this happens, enjoy the butter, for the process is irreversible.
  
  
• Whipped cream is not just for dolloping onto desserts. Float a spoonful in a cup of coffee, or swirl some onto a bowl of warm tomato soup or cold cucumber soup.
  
  
• Leftover whipped cream can be frozen. Drop dabs of whipped cream on waxed paper, freeze, and store in a freezer bag. To use as a topping, remove from freezer about 10 minutes ahead.

Last Bite

My Grandma’s Raspberry Kuchen

All that talk about bratwurst at the beginning of this newsletter made me homesick, and as I remembered family picnics, with my dad manning the fryer and my mom bringing out the potato salad (made with bacon), I realized what we would have had for dessert. A big piece of Grandma’s raspberry kuchen.

My grandmother lived next door to us, a wonderful circumstance. My brother and I spent many an hour helping her in the garden, especially picking raspberries on hot summer days. Grandma made us wait until the dew had dried, so the berries wouldn’t get moldy. We weren’t allowed to eat even one berry until the rows were picked clean. Then Grandma went to work on the kuchen. She used the recipe she learned from her mother, who had emigrated from Germany in about 1870. "Kuchen" means "cake" in German, she told us.

In the fall, Grandma would make the kuchen with apples. But in August, during their sweet season of ripeness, she used the juicy red berries we had just picked. Here’s her recipe.

Raspberry Kuchen

1-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg yolk beaten with 2 tablespoons milk
6 cups raspberries
Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the flour mixture alternately with the egg yolk mixture, stirring with a folk. The mixture will be crumbly. Pat into a 9" by 13" pan. Fill with raspberries.

For the topping, combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture is in coarse crumbs. Sprinkle on top of the berries. Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes, until the raspberries are bubbling. Makes 8 to 10 servings.