Living in a foreign country opens your eyes to many different foods, ingredients and brands. Sometimes you find something tastier/cheaper/all around better and sometimes you find that things around the world are really quite similar. Sometimes, however, there is that one ingredient you want for a recipe from home that you just can't find. Those times you learn to be creative or to make things from scratch.
Germany has most everything she could need to make recipes from the USA. She is really lucky how available American brands and general American food are in most local supermarkets. She has heard a lot of stories from other American expats in Germany about how many of these American products were not available ten years ago. She has learned to go without (not a problem when there are so many tasty German alternatives), pay more for what she wants (Americans would have a heart attack if they saw what marshmallows cost here), or make her own. Making her own is what she did this time.
A recent recipe needed Cool Whip, lots of Cool Whip. Since this is not something you can find in Germany she decided to give it a go at making her own. Here are some pictures (and measurements) from her recent test run. The end result was good...really good. Now she needs to find a lot of things to eat whipped cream with :)
For ~1/2 cup of Cool Whip:1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Optional:
Sahnefest - In Germany there is a powder sold which is supposed to keep you whipped cream stiff for longer. She used some and on day two the peaks still stand...perhaps because of this stuff or perhaps just because they do.
Freeze the metal bowl you will be mixing your cream in for at least 15 minutes before you begin.
Add the whipping cream, sugar, vanilla (and optional Sahnefest).
Using an electric mixer (believe her, this is too much work to do by hand) beat the whipping cream until peaks form. This might take more than 5 minutes.
Once the cream has become more of a solid you are done. Get out a spoon and enjoy!
Will this work as well in recipes when you mix it in with other stuff or just as a topping? I've read about stabilized whipped cream, but I want something that I can mix into dessert pie recipes without falling apart. I have Sahnefest already.
ReplyDelete(Can I just say how thrilled I was, after 2 years, to discover that Vollkern Keks are basically graham crackers? And that even if I do ever move back to the US, I will probably continue to make my own brown sugar because mixing my own just tastes better. The one thing I can't seem to get here that I really want, well, need, is cheddar popcorn salt.)