Freezing Heavy Whipping Cream

[Shelby]

I've been told here ( I think by @andiesenji ) and I've read online that one can freeze heavy whipping cream with no problem.  Online it says that you just shake your thawed container to incorporate the separated fat.  

 

It didn't work so well for me and I'm not sure why.  

 

We bought several pints of the stuff because it was a good price so I froze a couple for future use--mainly with making ice cream in mind.

 

I took one out of the freezer and put it in the fridge for a couple of days.  When I opened it up I was surprised to see that it was just one big lump.  There wasn't just a bit of butter fat that had separated, it was ALL of it.  Seriously, it looks like ricotta cheese.  

 

I forged ahead--I knew better, but I did it anyway--and made ice cream.  My recipe calls for heating a cup of the cream with the sugar.  That part seemed to look normal.  The butter fat globs melted back into the liquid.  However, the recipe then calls for me to add another cup of cream after removing the pot from heat.  That didn't look so normal.  I cooled the mixture as I always do overnight in the fridge and went on to pour it into my ice cream maker the next day.  It's AWFUL.  Big globs of fat that coat your tongue.  Blech.

 

It seems to be ok when you heat it like for a sauce...but not for cold use like ice cream.

 

Am I missing a trick to get the cream back to normal after being frozen?

 

[paulraphael]

Yeah, it doesn't work well. When you freeze the cream, many of fat globules rupture, leaking unemulsified milk fat. Normally they're discrete and surrounded by a membrane of proteins that helps keep the cream emulsified, but if the fats leak out, the emulsion breaks. The cream may still be useable, but it will tend to be grainy and may have an oily texture where the separated milkfat has pooled together.

 

If the cream is already partially coalesced, as in ice cream and whipped cream, it can be frozen without these issues. In these cases the original emulsion has been broken (partially) by churning, and the fat has formed a new structure that's not susceptible to freezing damage.

 

I'm not aware of a way repair it so it will work in ice cream, unfortunately. 

[pastrygirl]

You'd have to melt all the butter gobs, not just half of them. 

 

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@Shelby,

 

I have no experience with this, but was going to suggest you at least try pastrygirl's advice to dissolve the sugar in the entire quantity of cream and see if that would work. Either that or you could try making butter and used the remains for making bread. I hate to see good ingredients go to waste.

[andiesenji]

I take it out of the freezer leave it at room temp for a few hours, often overnight and then pulse it in a food processor until it has emulsified.  Then I transfer it to a container and chill it for an hour or so, stir - because it will separate a bit but then treat it like fresh. 

 

The process is similar to the "cream makers" that the Brits used to combine milk and butter to make cream.  

 

I should add that mostly I get Manufacturing Cream in half gallons and freeze that. Because it is not ultra-pasteurized, it does not keep as long.  Since I use it mostly for making butter and cheese I do not want the ultra-pasteurized because it does not form nice curds without some doctoring - adding calcium chloride...

Edited June 9, 2016 by andiesenji (log)

[blue_dolphin]

7 hours ago, andiesenji said:

I should add that mostly I get Manufacturing Cream in half gallons

 

@andiesenji, where do you get Manufacturing Cream these days?  I used to get the Alta Dena product at Smart & Final but it's not carried at the stores near me. 

 

I'll add that I used to freeze the Manufacturing Cream in the amounts I would need for a batch of cream scones and give the container a periodic shake as it was thawing.  It sometimes looked less than perfectly smooth but worked fine for the scones - of course, that's not an exacting application for cream: a mix of butter and milk would probably work just as well.

[HungryChris]

I think frozen cream is OK to use for butter, cheese or baking. Ice cream, not so much.

HC