Whipped cream
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Cream with 30% or more fat can be turned into whipped cream by mixing it with air. The resulting colloid is roughly double the volume of the original cream as air bubbles are captured in a network of fat droplets. If, however, the whipping is continued, the fat droplets will stick together destroying the colloid and forming butter; the remaining liquid is buttermilk. Confectioner's sugar (also known as icing sugar) is sometimes added to the colloid in order to stiffen the mixture and to reduce the risk of over whipping.
Whipped cream may be sold ready-to-use in pressurized containers. Nitrous oxide is used as a propellant, and when the cream leaves the nozzle, it produces four times the volume of cream, i.e., twice the volume produced by whipping air into it. Using this technique, it may also be prepared in reusable dispensers, similar to a seltzer siphon bottle, using inexpensive disposable nitrous oxide cartridges. However, the whipped cream produced with nitrous oxide is unstable, and will return to a more or less liquid state within half an hour to one hour. Thus, the method is not suitable for decorating food that will not be immediately served.
Cool Whip is a brand of imitation (non-dairy) whipped cream called a "whipped topping" by its manufacturer.
Chantilly cream (French: crème Chantilly) is whipped cream with sugar and vanilla.
[edit] See also
- Whipped-cream charger, describes how nitrous oxide whips cream
