FOOD NEWS
The Unexpected Ingredient That Can Transform Milk Into A Heavy Cream Substitute
By Alli Neal
It’s always unfortunate to get halfway through a recipe that requires heavy cream just to find that you have none, but instead of panicking, consider a creative replacement like milk. As the New York Times' Alexa Weibel showcased on TikTok, milk can be used as heavy cream when combined with this one unexpected ingredient.
In the U.S., heavy cream must have at least 36% milk fat while whole milk has between 0.5% and 3.5% milk fat, so one easy way to readjust milk’s fat content is to add butter. Depending on the brand, butter typically has 80% to 84% milk fat, so simply mixing ¾ cup of milk and ¼ cup of melted butter will create the perfect heavy cream substitute.
To incorporate your butter and milk, use either an immersion blender or some strong whisking, but keep in mind that this butter and milk solution will not whip like heavy cream. If you’re out of butter, try substituting Greek yogurt, which can be thinned with a splash of milk and used in recipes with baking soda (or powder) like pancakes.