Whipped Cream Recipe and Tutorial

The finishing touch on any cream pie is homemade whipped cream. This recipe, by Chef Anna Olson, has a special ingredient that stabilizes the cream but does not change the texture or taste. You can pipe it, you can dollop it--every swirl and swish will stay in place for several hours.  You will never buy the stuff in the tub or can after making and tasting this easy whipped cream recipe. Plus...I include a tutorial on how to mound it on your pie for a knock-your-socks-off presentation!

A 16 oz. carton of heavy whipping cream is shown, but you will only need 1 cup (8 oz).

Whipped Cream

1 cup (8 oz.) heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon instant nonfat dry milk

3 tablespoons sugar 

 

Place a metal, glass, or ceramic 3- or 4-qt. mixing bowl and beaters into the freezer for 10 minutes. Add all ingredients to the mixing bowl, and with an electric mixer at medium-high speed, beat just until the cream reaches stiff peaks and loses its gloss. Keep refrigerated.

Whipped Cream 101:  Once you have whipped the cream for a minute or two, you’ll notice that the beaters leave trails.  The longer you whip, the thicker and more noticeable these trails become.  Most recipes call for either soft or stiff peaks.  For soft peaks, if you lift up the beaters and look, the peak should curl down and melt back into the mound.  For stiff peaks, keep beating until the peaks stand straight up and appear firm when beaters are lifted. For a great visual guide, click here.

Click here for printable format  
   

*Stabilization tip given in Anna Olson's Top 10 Baking Questions Answered:  https://www.foodnetwork.ca/baking/blog/anna-olsons-top-10-baking-questions-answered/
   

Note:  I have a KitchenAid stand mixer, but I prefer to use a hand mixer for whipped cream and meringue.  I feel it gives more control over the end product.

This is the coconut cream pie I made for this blog post.  I removed half the pie right after topping it with the whipped cream and toasted coconut.  This is a photo of the pie taken four hours later.  The whipped cream did not deflate, weep, or get runny.

Placing Whipped Cream on a Pie Tutorial:

After following the above directions, your whipped cream should look like this:

Take a spoonful of cream, and place it where you would like your perimeter to be:

With the back of your spoon, apply light pressure, and spread the cream slightly outward, inward, and to the side to form a bigger, flatter section:

Take a second spoonful, and place it to the side of the first using the back of your spoon to spread the cream in the same way.  Continue around the perimeter of the pie:
 

Fill the center with a spoonful of cream and slightly spread:

Repeat the process making your next layer of whipped cream slightly smaller in diameter:

Repeat with a third layer making the diameter smaller than the second layer:

 Using the back of your spoon, push into the whipped cream while pulling up to make peaks:

Done!  :)

If desired, add a decorative finish to the top of the whipped cream:

 

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