Home Made Creme Fraiche

Creme Fraiche is all the rage on the Food Network cooking channels, but it is i of those ingredients that I've been too stubborn old fashioned to try, until now.

Well, my curiosity got the meliorate of me too creme fraiche went onto my grocery list. You tin imagine my stupor when I saw the toll of it (at to the lowest degree at our market) was $7+ per cup!!! That's merely crazy.

So inward my penny pinching thrifty mindset,(and wanting to know what all the creme fraiche hubbub was about), I laid out to come across if I could MAKE it. I was shocked at how easy, inexpensive (and fun) it is to do.  Yes, it takes a span days to make, but 99.999% of that fourth dimension is merely waiting for it to "cure".

2 cups of heavy whipping cream (at to the lowest degree 45% butterfat)
3 tablespoons buttermilk (OR) evidently yogurt (see note)

That's it!!

Mix the 2 ingredients together well, too position it into a rattling build clean drinking glass jar. Cover it loosely too permit it sit down on your kitchen counter for 24 hours (room temperature should hold out 70° to 75°).

It's proficient if yous orbit it a quick stir afterwards 8 hours, but that isn't absolutely necessary.

After 24 hours, it volition withal appear a fiddling thin, but that's OK. Put a lid on the jolt too position it inward the refrigerator for some other 24 hours. After 24 hours inward the fridge, it volition thicken upwards too hold out gear upwards to run inward whatever recipe that yous would ordinarily run sour cream for.

 

The season volition hold out rattling mild at this stage, but it volition larn tangier the longer it sits inward the refrigerator (keeps virtually vii to 10 days).

People tell it is the "mild cousin" to America's commercial sour cream, but I intend it is much tastier than that. Of course, the season of your creme fraiche volition depend on the "flavor" (quality) of whipping cream, and brand (quality) of buttermilk.

Creme fraiche is excellent for baking sweet AND savory dishes. It is much more tolerant to heat (than commercial sour cream), so it works well in gravy or sauces too makes killer mashed potatoes!! Sweetened, it is dainty over whatever dessert, specially fresh fruit. Can yous tell that I am a recent convert??

NOTE: Many of the recipes for creme fraiche (that are online) insist on using UN-pasteurized cream, but I couldn't detect it, too then I merely used regular pasteurized heavy whipping cream too it worked fine.

NOTE: The buttermilk or yogurt that yous run HAS to conduct hold alive cultures inward it. The buttermilk at our marketplace was depression fatty too didn't advert "live cultures", too then I opted for the same amount of organic unflavored yogurt amongst alive cultures too it worked rattling well.