Bon Appetit: Crème Fraiche

Creme Fraiche-1.jpg
My creme fraiche sitting for 24 hours with the pickle jars and some wild apples.

Nobody sells creme fraiche here, so I had to make it for a special raspberry cream-like pie from Bon Appetite that I want to make. It seems an extravagant ingredient to make (the recipe calls for 1/4 cup and the 1 cup batch you make lasts only 10 days). But that's life. This recipe is from Bon Appetite. Do not use ultra pasteurized cream!Here's the directions . . .

With a tangy flavor and thick consistency, crème fraîche is the natural result of letting cream skimmed off the top of milk ferment at a warm temperature-or at least it is in its native France. In America, we pasteurize milk, killing off the bacteria that would cause fermentation. To make crème fraïche with American cream, you have to add buttermilk or sour cream; they contain bacteria that thicken cream.

Similar to sour cream, crème fraîche makes a delicious topping for desserts and adds body and flavor to sauces and pasta dishes.

How to make your own crème fraîche:

Combine 2 tablespoons of buttermilk with 1 cup of whipping cream in a glass container. Cover and let it sit at room temperature (about 70ºF) for 8 to 24 hours. Don't despair if your cream doesn't thicken after 22 hours; sometimes it happens nearly all at once. When it has thickened, stir well and refrigerate up to 10 days

_/\_/\_

Comments