So all this talk about reducing sugar and eating super foods and having a healthy lifestyle…it doesn’t mean you can’t indulge once in a while. The key word here is balance. One thing I love to make to satisfy my family’s sweet tooth is homemade whipped cream. It is super indulgent, I can control the amount of sugar I’m adding, and it goes perfectly with all kinds of fruits and berries (and as I’m sure you know, many berries are super foods!).
I like to add real vanilla bean paste to my homemade whipped cream to make it extra decadent. I do use white, refined sugar, but just a bit. We’re used to less sugar so a little bit goes a long way. That is one thing I’ve noticed with reducing or detoxing sugar–after your body adjusts, a tiny bit of sweetness goes a LONG way. Which is great! Because you can still indulge once in a while and not go overboard doing it.
We eat dairy in this house so if you are vegan, you’ll have to skip this one (sorry!). Maybe one day I will try one of these recipes for vegan whipped coconut cream, but for today I’m sharing my dairy whipped cream!
About those berries…ever hear of the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale? It’s a lab test that quantifies the capacity of antioxidants in a food. Why should you care? Because the better a food protects its “good stuff”, the more of that said “good stuff” your body will be able to absorb! Learn more here. I added blueberries (ORAC: 4,669), black berries (ORAC: 19,220), strawberries, and the next night, peaches to our whipped cream 🙂 What will you add? Pomegranate seeds, red raspberries, goji berries (ORAC: 3,290), oranges, bananas, some cinnamon (ORAC: 131,420) on top, some nuts for a little added protein? Endless possibilities, people! Which is why you can make this one a regular in your menu plans and just rotate the toppings 🙂 Kiddos love it! Want to know all the ORAC values of the above listed toppings? You can find that info here. Without further ado…
Homemade Whipped Cream
1 Pint Heavy Whipping Cream
Vanilla Bean Paste (one bean)
1-2 Tablespoons white sugar to taste
Berries, peaches, other fruits, nuts, coffee, black tea, whatever else you’d like to eat this with! 🙂
This makes a lot of whipped cream so you might want to half it if your family is less than four people 😉
You’ll need a whisk head like this for your mixer:
If you’ve never worked with vanilla beans, you will want to cut the bean in half, then you slice the bean down the middle. Open it up so you can see the paste in the middle. And then scrape the paste out of the bean. You will add this directly to the bowl just like this. So, leave it on your knife and set it aside.
Ok…now…
Add the whipping cream, vanilla bean paste, and sugar to your mixing bowl. Mix on high (with your whisk head) until the cream starts to look fluffy and forms peaks. Scrape the sides of the bowl and put the cream in the fridge to set (about 20 minutes or so). Add your other goodies and enjoy! Keep the whipped cream in the fridge. For best storage, I like to keep it right in my stainless steel mixing bowl so it stays nice and evenly chilled!
Five Little Duckies 