Double Cream - Where to get or make?

[leigh]

Some British recipes call for "double cream", which is supposed to mean the same as American whipping cream. 'Tain't so, Mabel!!! Our whipping cream is about like their "single cream". What I need to know is, what can I do with this pasteurized, thinned-out, 21st-century American excuse-for so I can use it in recipes calling for double cream?? Most times it wouldn't matter a tremendous lot, but I have this recipe for syllabub which is supposed to be a cloudlike dessert to be eaten with a spoon. Well, when I made it I ended up with a very good-tasting beverage topped with whipped cream!

I think the cream we used to have back home on the farm would have worked just fine because after the milk had been strained and then stood in the refrigerator for a couple of days, the first layer of cream we skimmed off the top was so thick you couldn't even pour it. It whipped in about 25 seconds and the whipped cream never did any weeping at all when we refrigerated it for later use. Boy, were those the days!!

Anyway, if anybody has ideas I'd love to hear them!

 

[BradTheDog]

The general public can not get fresh double cream in the US or as far as I know even in canada. I know a few small dary farmers who produce it (not really and easy or cheap process), but good luck getting any of them to sell it to anyone but a select group of customers.

You can however buy som shelf stable double cream and for that matter clotted cream online and through some catalogs. try king arthur flour first I know they carry them (about $5 per jar).

 

[starrleicht]

I was going to suggest the Clotted Cream, too. I know where there are two recipes for clotted cream so I grabbed one, but I realize this may not solve your problem. Maybe you need to get acquainted with a farmer near you! Well, seriously! Are you in an area where there are a lot of farmers? I'm in WI and we've got them all around...but that doesn't help you either! Sorry - here's that recipe, it's from fitnessandfreebies.com:

Devonshire Clotted Cream

Ingredients:
1 cup whipping cream
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon crème de cassis, or to taste
3 tablespoons cold water
¾ teaspoon gelatin
1 cup light sour cream

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, vanilla and crème de cassis and whip at high speed until mixture is of a soft peak consistency.

In a small saucepan, add cold water to gelatin and stir until gelatin disperses. Heat mixture to about 125-degrees or until mixture is clear.

While heating gelatin mixture, put light sour cream in a separate bowl. Immediately stir hot gelatin mixture into sour cream, mixing until completely blended.

Add sour cream mixture to whipped cream and blend at low speed until mixture is smooth and creamy.

Recipe makes about two generous cups.

 

[kitchenelf]

Thanks for the recipe starr - it's always good to have a substitute in case you can't find the real thing.

 

[titi of toadhall]

double cream and clotted cream from England

Hi Guys I am looking up methods myself for clotted cream and double cream. I am really surprised how difficult it is for you to get so thought you might like this info from over here. It really isn't as difficult as is being suggested! from http://www.cornishlight.co.uk/cornish-clotted-cream.htm
Cornwall Clotted Cream
This is the method my grandmother used to make clotted cream some 40 years ago when she was still farming in Cornwall. It is far less glamorous than the method described above, and in her day was very hard work indeed. (If there are any Cornish clotted cream producers out there, could they let us know how it is actually produced today? Thank you)
Let a churn of milk, preferably high butterfat, stand overnight, giving any cream chance to rise to the surface. The following morning pass the milk into the bowl of a cream separator. Inside the separator are a series of cylindrical discs, all rotating at very high speed, 6000 to 9000 rpm, thanks to gearing as the handle is turned by hand. The heavier skimmed milk collects on the outer circumference, with the lighter cream remaining in the centre. The pressure of incoming milk from the bowl above forced the skimmed milk and cream out into separate collecting vessels. The faster the handle was turned the more cream could be separated, but one would be left with aching arms after only a few minutes.
Place cream in a cool place. Serve cold in a crystal glass bowl. Ideal when dolloped onto a warm scone, served with spoonfuls of real fruit strawberry jam and washed lashing of hot tea as part of a Cream Tea in Cornwall - and basic cream is simple too :
In modern milk production, cream is separated from milk with the use of a centrifuge called a separator. In less technical times, milk was poured into shallow pans and the cream rose naturally to the top. In Britain, cream that was skimmed from the top after 12 hours was called cream or single cream. Cream that wasn't separated until 24 hours had elapsed was called double cream AND
or I think the cream we used to have back home on the farm would have worked just fine because after the milk had been strained and then stood in the refrigerator for a couple of days, the first layer of cream we skimmed off the top was so thick you couldn't even pour it. It whipped in about 25 seconds and the whipped cream never did any weeping at all when we refrigerated it for later use. Boy, were those the days!! AND
someone says, I have a cream maker that fits onto the Kenwood.To make double cream you put 8ozs of unsalted butter to 4 fl ozs of milk into the cream maker. If you want to whisk it to make it even thicker ,it works really well with the whisk although I have found it is very thick and have only whisked it when I want to put it into a sponge.Sorry, but it does not work with salted butter I always use lurpak, and it tastes really nice. Wikipaedia tells you the fat content of the creams - double cream has a higher fat content than whipping cream.
Really hope this is helpful and fun and that you enjoy having a go experimenting with these. It really is worth it!! Best of .. Oh, just seen that this is a really old thread - oh well, I hope someone finds it anyway. It seems you have very little info on it.