Cream - Ice Cream Key Ingredient

Cream – one of the two words that make up ‘Ice Cream’ - represents all that’s truly delicious and luxurious about ice cream. In my view, cream lies at the very heart of the best homemade ice cream for it lends both a taste and texture to ice cream that defies words! In truth it’s the butterfat content in cream that is the special ingredient.

Most of us try to watch the calories when choosing ingredients for cooking or baking and ice cream is no exception. The higher the butterfat content of the cream, the higher the calories but the better the taste and texture of the ice cream you make.

Here’s a basic guideline when looking to choose the cream you use in your next ice cream recipe:

Heavy cream (double cream)
This has the highest butterfat content - over 1/3

Light cream (single cream)
This has a lower content – around 1/5th to 1/3

One way to enjoy heavy cream in a recipe whilst watching the calories is to use 1/3 or ½ of the quantity the recipe suggests and balance it up with extra milk.