With the exception of the whipped cream bikini, I love every whipped cream application there is. Pile it on pies, dollop it into drinks, eat it with a spoon—all methods of getting whipped cream into your mouth are valid, but some are more interesting than others. Whether you like it sweet, plain, or savory, we’ve got 15 intriguing ways for you to make and eat the ubiquitous, fluffy topping.
Whipped cream is usually added to a dessert at the last minute for dramatic flair, but also because it isn’t the most stable of toppings. After a while on the table, whipped cream can start to deflate and weep. Give it a fighting chance and stabilize it with either sour cream or milk powder. Sour cream brings a little extra fat to help solidify things, while milk powder’s protein helps your peaks stay lofty, even if you decorate your dessert before the apps hit the table.
Umeboshi vinegar isn’t a true vinegar, but the liquid that’s leftover after salt-curing Japanese plums. It’s salty, sour, a little fruity and funky, and illogically delicious in a fluffy, cloud of sweetened whipped cream.
Though they’re known as “the spice rack of the bar cart,” cocktail bitters are nothing more than concentrated botanical extracts, and you can use them to flavor all sorts of things, including whipped cream. As I’ve mentioned previously, they won’t aggressively flavor your cream, but it will give it a sophisticated edge:
Flavor-wise, adding bitters to your cream won’t make it taste strongly of something else, but it will make it taste better, more nuanced, and more sophisticated. Plain Angostura will serve you fine, but I think orange bitters would be particularly nice, and this could be a good use for any “artisanal” flavored bitters sets you were gifted at a work gift exchange.
Adding a tablespoon of malted milk powder to your heavy cream before whipping it gives is a toasty malted flavor that’s perfect for sundaes, shakes, and (obviously) malts.
Heavy cream is neither inherently sweet nor savory, and adding air to the equation does not change things. As I’ve mentioned previously, there is no reason to restrict yourself:
Reserving whipped cream for desserts and desserts only is dumb. Soft mountains of fluffy whipped cream can—and should!—be used in salty dishes. Have you ever wanted to add a hit of pure creamy goodness to a dish, but also didn’t want to get your food wet? Savory whipped cream is the answer. To open up your mind to the possibilities, just think of it like a more restrained creme fraiche, a whisper of burrata, or a more fun version of (boring) liquid cream, which is literally what it is. Dollop it into bowls of soup, onto cured fish canapés, and atop summery tomato salads (or just dip a cherry tomato in it).
When pulverized and mixed into whipping cream, freeze-dried fruit adds vibrant color and flavor. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and mangos—all can be blitzed and blended to make a beautiful, fluffy topping. (Just make sure to add sugar; that fruit is quite tart.)
It’s hard to make a small amount of whipped cream, which can lead to leftovers. Whipped cream doesn’t last too long in the fridge, but it freezes beautifully. Pipe it out into little swirls on a baking sheet lined with parchment and set it in the freezer for a few hours, or spread it out, freeze it, and cut it into festive shapes with cookie cutters.
Last year, I paid nearly $70 for a little retro cookbook called “Singers & Swingers in the Kitchen.” There are many delights to be enjoyed within its pages, but Barbra Streisand’s instant coffee ice cream might be the best recipe in there. Made with marshmallows, whipped cream, instant coffee, and milk, this recipe is creamy and sweet, like a cup of coffee that was doctored by someone who doesn’t actually like coffee all that much, but loves cream and sugar. (Try it with pretzels.)
Whipping cream is pretty great in its flat, pre-inflated state. In fact—as we’ve discussed previously—cold, lightly-sweetened, un-whipped cream is my preferred topping for summer berries and stone fruits:
The ice-cold, rich, and slightly sweetened cream was the perfect match for the bright, candy-like, in-season berries. Rather than focus on a mountain of fluffy, ostentatious whipped cream, my attention shifted to the berries. The cream was no longer the star, but the supporting act, which is honestly how things should be when dealing with fresh-picked fruit. Beyond its flavor, the lack of effort involved makes it the perfect summertime dessert.
The thing about berry-picking is that you are often left with a craving for pie, or shortcake, or something in the genre. Take a canister of whipped cream to the fields (along with a store-bought angel food cake) and reward yourself with an impromptu strawberry shortcake.
Even though I am perfectly capable of whipping cream, I usually have a canister of the aerosol stuff in my fridge, mostly to make my afternoon espresso con panna. It’s a nice little caffeinated treat to fight that 2:30-feeling and a small act of (accessible, cheap) indulgence.
Molecular gastronomy isn’t as popular as it was a decade ago, but I have hung on to my whipping siphon, if only to make this fancy cheese foam. Beyond the siphon (and chargers), the only thing you’ll need is whipping cream and processed cheese wedges. (I like the Dubliner brand.)
As a reluctant baker, I appreciate any hack that lets me elevate a boxed mix, be it cake or brownies. By folding half a cup of whipped cream into a boxed mix cake batter, you add a creamy, delicate flavor and rich moisture, along with height, thanks to the air trapped inside the structure of the whipped dairy.
Icebox cakes are barely cakes, but they are delicious. Made with cookies and whipped cream (or Cool Whip), all you have to do is stack and wait. The whipped cream softens the cookies, creating a sliceable cake that is, frankly, much better tasting than it has any right to be. Try it with Oreos, Biscoff cookies, and almond thins.
Cherry pie makers love this one weird trick: Save the pits and soak them in a bowl of unwhipped cream, letting the tiny pieces of fruit that cling to the pit flavor it. Then whip that cream. Then enjoy cherry-flavored whip cream.