How To... Whip Cream in Under 60 Seconds!

Hello Friends! Hope your week is off to a fabulous start. I was out of town for work Sunday and Monday, but I'm back now (woot!) and also back to blogging. One of the things I'd like to blog more about in the coming year is how to do certain things in the kitchen - I'm not talking about certain recipes, I'm talking about skills we should all have so we don't have to buy the processed version or ideas for a better way to do something we might already do in our day to day culinary adventures. I posted a few how-to posts during 2011 (how to roast garlic, how to carmelize onions, etc), but I want to have more posts like that in addition to my usual recipes and wine suggestions.

So why not start the year off with something most of us love - home made whipped cream! Not that yucky processed stuff you spray out of a can. I'm talking creamy, decadent (and sinful) cream sweetened to taste with sugar and flavoured subtley with dreamy mexican vanilla. But sometimes we just don't have time to wait or maybe you don't want to listen to the stand mixer whip at full speed for 5 or so minutes while we wait for the cream to whip to the perfect consistency (if it even whips up properly on the first try).

Boy have I got a trick for you! If you're impatient like me, you'll love this one. Dump some cream in the small bowl of your food processor. Add some sugar and vanilla to taste (start with a couple tbsp sugar and a tsp or so of vanilla). Put the lid on and run the food processor until your cream whips to soft peaks. Check after 30 seconds to see how its doing - it will take just under a minute to be done perfectly every time. Just don't overwhip or you'll have butter. :)

Note that in my pictures, I'm whipping a very small quantity of cream (just enough for one mug of hot chocolate and then a couple extra spoonfuls for tasting - strictly quality control of course!!). This tastes perfect on a delicious mug of Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate.

Hope you find this useful! I know I was intrigued when I first saw this technique about a year ago (and yep, I'm just sharing it with you now!). Stay tuned for some great posts later this week.

Until then, Happy Baking my Friends!