Hi, folks-

Does anyone know if heavy cream that has been simmered and chilled will whip more or less normally? I’d like to put some hot cream in a french press coffee pot with some coarsely ground coffee, ‘brew’ it, chill it and beat it to make coffee whipped cream. If this doesn’t work, I’ll go the instant coffee route, but fresh brewed coffee tastes so much better than instant. It would be nice to get that extra flavor into the cream.

By the way, inspired by one of Hector’s posts, I had another try at baking a classic genoise at 5000 feet. Instead of using my usual altitude-adjusted recipe, I used the one from TCB, just reducing the sugar to 80g and baking at 375F. Wow! It was gorgeous! Beautifully even-textured, 2” high before trimming. A fluke? No. I made another. The result was the same. Thank you, Hector!

Cathy

Hi Cathy - I’m not sure if the heavy cream will whip once you simmer/chill it, but I know ultra-pasteurized (ultra heated) cream dosn’t whip as nicely as standard pasteurized cream, which doesn’t whip as well as non-pasteurized cream. 

If you have to go the “instant” coffee route, use instant espresso by Medaglia D’oro - it’s very high quality.

I bet Kahlua would be heavenly too.  Why don’t you just try a small amount and see if it whips?  I have no clue either.

Patrincia, your concern is valid.  I do think heated heavy cream will whip fine as your analogy to ultra-pasteurized cream.  I only use ultra-pasteurized cream since it is the easiest one for me to buy.  Also, think of ganache, it uses heated cream.  It may just take a few minutes longer, but never an issue if you have a stand mixer.

You must try, because the coffee idea sounds heavenly.  Another route instead of using instant Medaglia D’oro (which I adore and use whenever I want a stronger coffee color and scent), is to add espresso shots to your whipped cream, which is pretty concentrated coffee.  You could perhaps use the hot espresso to dissolve a bit of unflavored gelatin, and make Super Stabilized Whipped Cream (which is the only one I make, just as a safeguard to make the frosting more sturdy).  I prefer espresso coffee because it doesn’t have most of the acids since the extraction is by pressure and fast (15 seconds less).

I am so glad I inspired your Genoise.  Cakes without baking powder can be baked at high altitude no problem!!!!!!!!!  and without having to change anything (sugar, etc) in the recipe.  At least that is true for Biscuit de Savoie.

I’ve just finished the support/cake part of Keith’s Civil Engineering Bridge cake.  Twin cakes, hexagonal like, Rose’s Yellow Butter Wedding Cake.  The cake is filled and torted with Mousseline with lots of strawberry conserve, which means pink and I wasn’t happy with this color in the design so I overcoated it with a thin layer of chocolate mousseline.  The bridge will be caramel.  I am afraid that I will not make butter cakes in the future, because they are heavy and worse of all because they are so delicious to eat on its own, so I am gaining weight from eating all the cake cutouts on the spot instead of saving it for future dessert constructions!

Today is my birthday, and I was actually going to celebrate two weeks from now because of been busy, but friends organized a bbq for today, so I will attend.  I will attend without my own cake (rare thing) since my cake is scheduled for two weeks from now.

Do report back on your wonderful Coffee Whipped Cream.

First- Happy Birthday, Hector! The bridge cake is marvelous. A bbq to which you are not bringing a cake sounds like a good birthday present. You can enjoy everything without wondering what you would tweak next time!

Thank you all for your suggestions. I’ve used the Medaglia d’Oro, but haven’t been able to find it lately. I haven’t been to an Italian specialty store in a while since the local grocery, gourmet grocery, and cheese shop now carry many of the things I used to get at the Italian market, but this reminds me of why it’s good to venture afield now and then. Kalhua, yum. The espresso shot is within reach. My curiousity is piqued, now. I’ll start with a small batch of brewed coffee cream, with the security of other less dicey options as backups.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Cathy

thanks!

Happy Birthday Hector!!!!  Gee, it seems like only yesterday when it was your last birthday .

(a,hem)
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday Dear Hector,
Happy Birthday to You!!!

Hi Cathy,
Can’t wait to hear the results of the simmered cream experiment!

To Hector: Happy Birthday!!

~All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.~ George Harrison
~The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.~ Lucille Ball

Hope you had a Happy Birthday, Hector, All the Best!

Here’s what happened: in short, it worked.

In detail, I decided to make one recipe of white chocolate whipped ganache, but with coffee-infused cream. I put 2T coffee ground for a press pot in my individual serving size press coffee maker, brought 10 oz ultrapasteurized heavy whipping cream just to the point of bubbling from all parts of the pan, poured it into the coffee maker, and waited 5 minutes. Pushing down the plunger became very difficult part of the way through the process, but I poured off some of the cream that had already come through, moved the plunger up and down a bit, then depressed it fully without any more trouble. There were tiny flecks of coffee dust in the cream, and it had a nice light coffee and cream color.

I used some of the coffee cream immediately to melt the white chocolate. Chilling proceeded. I’d had good luck previously with putting a bit of gelatin into the white ganache (it doesn’t soften in the refrigerator and freezes and thaws well), so went through the gelatin softening and melting process with some espresso. Beating the coffee cream produced beater marks in about the usual time. I dumped in the white chocolate mixture and ran the machine to stir it in a little.

Then I goofed. When I put in the gelatin I sloshed it around a bit. Little pieces of it gelled before I was able to incorporate it. The dark color made the problem quite visible, though the flavor and texure weren’t problems. Any tips on getting the gelatin to incorporate fully?

The cream whipped to spreading consistency normally. It had lovely, intense coffee flavor. The color and the coffee kick both contrasted well with regular white ganache. The cakes were praised and devoured. I’ll try to post photos of the cakes on the show and tell forum.

Hi Cathy,
Sounds like it was tasty, can’t wait to see the pics.

Re: getting gelatin to incorporate better: generally if you dissolve the gelatin in a small amount (1-2 tablespoons usually does the trick) of the recipe’s liquid (in this case the pressed warm cream) and stir until completely smooth then add it back into the bulk of the mix.
Happy Baking!
Cate