What to replace cream in a recipe: 8 substitute products

Cream, rich in nutrients, contributes to the mineralization of bones, prevents the formation of cholesterol plaques, the development of atherosclerosis. The product is quickly digested, envelopes the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract, which is useful for gastritis, peptic ulcer disease. In addition to the positive effects on the body, natural cream has many contraindications. People with obesity, hypertension, slow digestion and those who want to lose weight have to find alternatives to the fatty product when cooking home-cooked meals.

What is cream?

Fresh cream is a thick, viscous, sweet mass taken from settled milk. This versatile product with a fat content of 10ؘ-38% is used for preparing soups, sauces, milkshakes, fish, meat dishes, confectionery and desserts.

Types

Raw cream with a shelf life of one day is used as a raw material for drinking cream which has undergone heat treatment such as pasteurization, sterilization and ultra-pasteurization.

In the first case, the product remains "alive" because it is heated no higher than 70°C.

Ultra-pasteurization involves strong but short heating to 120-140°C, which increases the shelf life from 4 days to six months.

The safest, but also the least useful product is sterilized, which has been treated for a long time at temperatures above 100°C.

In addition to drinking cream, stores sell dried, canned and whipped cream in cans.

A separate type of cream is vegetable cream, which is used for people who are allergic to milk. Coconut cream with a characteristic flavor, aroma is made from the pulp of nuts, soy cream is used for lactose intolerance, it tastes like a natural product.

How to replace cream: substitute products

Depending on the use, cream is replaced by fatty products (butter, cheese, sour cream) or vegetable analogues (tofu, coconut cream or milk) with less calories.

If there is no cream, other dairy products and vegetable analogues in the house, the biscuit cakes are sprinkled with banana whipped with egg white.

Butter and Milk

To get a thick, delicate cream for cakes, filling desserts, take 50 g of butter and 150 ml of milk with a fat content of 2.5%.

Cut the butter into small pieces, add it to a container with the milk, and put it on a water bath. While stirring bring mixture to a boil, pour it into a blender bowl.

Whisk until smooth. Place the butter-milk mixture in a closed container in the fridge for 7-8 hours. Whisk the cooled mixture with a mixer, gradually increasing the speed. When the cream has thickened, add granulated sugar or powdered sugar.

Sour Cream

Cream can easily be replaced with sour cream, diluted with milk or water. Unlike sweet cream, the counterpart gives the dessert a light, tangy sourness. The amount of extra liquid depends on the fat content of the original product.

The fattest sour cream (from 50%) is mixed with water in proportions of 1:1, medium-fat (20-40%) - the same, but with milk.

Four parts nonfat (10-20%) lactic product is combined with one part water.

If sour cream is substituted for cream when making a sauce, the product is not diluted with anything. Simply reduce its quantity.

Cream cheese

Instead of cream cheese, cream cheese can be prepared. Cheese product for spilling cakes, leveling cakes is not difficult to make.

It consists of cheese, butter and sugar (powdered sugar) whipped to a homogeneous consistency. Vanillin, chocolate, instant coffee, citrus fruits are added as flavorings and colorings.

Condensed Milk

A sweeter alternative to cream is condensed milk. Whisk 200 g of condensed milk with 1 tsp of lemon juice. If a more calorie-dense layer is desired, add butter to the recipe.

Coconut Cream of Butter

To make the cream not from natural cream, but from 400 g of coconut cream, you need 50 g of powdered sugar, a pinch of vanillin.

To make the coconut cream, put the coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, drain the water, leaving a white solid mass. Place it in a cooled container, beat with a mixer and powdered sugar. Vegetable cream is similar to natural cream in consistency, but has a bright flavor, the aroma of coconut.

Brown rice and low-fat milk

An alternative to heavy cream in soups is less caloric brown rice with milk. The mixture, unlike natural cream, does not curdle at high temperatures and is used in hot dishes.

Pour 100 grams of brown steamed rice with a glass of chicken broth and boil it for 25 minutes after boiling. After 5 minutes of simmering add a glass of nonfat milk and knead to a smooth mass.

Tofu

Contrary to popular belief, tofu is not cheese, but curd made from acidified soy milk. The unique product does not have a strong taste and flavor, so it is versatile.

Tofu does not lend itself to whipping, but enriches dishes with protein, introduced in the same amount as cream.

Cashew cream.

Creamy, dairy-free flavor can be achieved using cashews. Vegan cream easily replaces whipped cream in desserts and enriches the flavor of soups, porridge, roasted, raw vegetables.

To make a silky, cream-flavored nut cream, soak cashews in water beforehand. Whisk the nuts with a little water and salt until they are the consistency of yogurt. If you need a sweetened cream, add dates to the soaking water.

Can I freeze heavy cream?

The optimal storage temperature for a creamy product is the refrigerator shelf at 2-4 degrees. If in the distant future you plan to use leftover cream for making sauces, mousses, gravies, you can freeze them safely.

It is not possible to make a puffy cream after defrosting, because the fat mass splits into butter and whey. Even after reanimating in a water bath, followed by whipping with a blender, the cream can not be stabilized.

The thawed product after stratification is substituted for sour cream in recipes for biscuits, muffins, yeast dough cakes.

If you whip the thawed cream with a mixer and leave it overnight in a colander, in the morning there will be butter in the container.

Cream can be frozen in a mold for ice, later added to tea, coffee. For use in desserts, the product is whipped, deposited with a pastry bag on parchment, sent to the freezer. After freezing, the patterned caps are transferred to food containers with a tight lid and returned.

Cream can be replaced with dairy products - butter, sour cream, cream cheese, milk - without affecting the taste. With lactose intolerance use tofu, brown rice or coconut, soy cream, which is better whipped, longer shelf life.