"broken" creme fraiche?

[OliverB]

Hi, I just made the French Laundry carrot soup and it's supposed to be decorated with a bit of sour cream and herbs. I was to whip the cream till peaks form, pretty quick, then add the herbs. But now it's all breaking, there's lots of liquid leaking out (white, maybe whey?) and it looks odd. Tastes fine and I'll use it, but does anybody have an idea what happened? The recipe I have is from Saveur magazine and is not very detailed and I've never whipped creme fraiche before, it's a bit too expensive to just play with.

thanks for any ideas, also on how I can maybe put this all back together? Whip more? Add a bit more creme fraiche?

Oliver

PS: the soup is to die for, each spoon must have the essence of several carrots on it, 2 1/2 cups fresh carrot juice (I think 8 large ones) and then 3 medium ones in addition (or in my case a bundle of small organic ones from Whole Food). Some cream, butter, honey and curry, salt and pepper. Amazing.....

[paulraphael]

I'm guessing it's overwhipped. If that's the case, stirring in a bit of unwhipped creme fraiche might fix it (i'll bet you already tried this).

[tim]

Hi,

Paul is correct about the overwhipping. Stir in whipping cream and whip some more and it will come together.

Tim

[OliverB]

thanks. I tried it with more creme fraiche, but it did not work well. I had not whipped it much at all, and only by hand. All fine but 10 min or so after I set it aside it went all weird on me. Tasted fine, just didn't look as nice as I hoped. Next time I'll make it last minute right before I put it on the soup as garnish.

Thanks!

Oliver

[paulraphael]

I'm stumped then.

Wild guess: the creme fraiche was a bit low on butterfat, and this reduced its stability.

I'm not convinced either but it's all I got

[tim]

Paul,

I was thinking the opposite. A really high butterfat content will cause buttermilk to separate with whipping.

Of course, we don't know anything about the creme fraiche.

Tim

[Starkman]

Okay, here are my notes for standard whipping cream, but you may find it works for creme fraiche:

Adding a tiny amount of gelatin in water and adding it to the whipped cream at the end of the whipping makes for a firmer cream that holds up well in hot weather. Just slightly warm the gelatin mixture—body temp or slightly above being ideal—before adding it because the gelatin will set as soon as it hits the cold whipping cream.

[OliverB]

thanks all, not sure what happened either. Next time I'll just make it right when I serve the soup, it's chilled soup anyway, so that should be easy. It was wonderful when just done, and shortly thereafter it was lumpy and all the whey (I guess) drained out. Odd.

I don't usually buy that stuff, at $7 for a little tub it's a bit expensive.

Oh well, live and learn ;-)

[tim]

It was wonderful when just done, and shortly thereafter it was lumpy and all the whey (I guess) drained out. Odd.

I don't usually buy that stuff, at $7 for a little tub it's a bit expensive.

Oh well, live and learn ;-)

←

Oliver,

The whey draining out pretty much confirms my suspicion that your creme fraiche was separating into butter and butter milk. When the butter fat content is this high, you have to incorporate cream, lowering the butterfat level in order to successfully whip the product.

You can make your own excellent creme fraiche using pasteurized cream with no stabilizers and a little buttermilk. Mix about 1 cup of heavy cream (NO ADDITIVES) and a teaspoon of buttermilk; again with no additives. Place in a paper coffee filter, cover and strain overnight at room temperature. The whey will strain out and you are left with beautiful creme fraiche with a very high butterfat content. Yes, it cannot be whipped because it turns into butter.

If you want creme fraiche that may be whipped, skip the straining.

Good luck,

Tim