Custard Creme and Whipped Cream

Fresh cream is what you get when you let fresh milk from cows float to the surface.  It is a dairy product skimmed from the top of milk before it is homogenized and in more industrial practices is actually centrifuged (separated) out of the milk.  There are several grades of that depend on the butterfat content and can even be dried for shipping and sale.  

Custard creme isn't a cream according to US law (i.e. creme, kereme, creame, or whipped topping) but are merely called that because of their texture and the possibility that they might contain milk or milk products.  It is usually prepared from a combination of milk/cream and egg yolk, which gives it it's color.  The viscosity can vary from fluids used as sauces and pastry creams used as filling.

Whipped cream is made by whisking air in to a cream with 30% or higher butterfat content until it has turned from a liquid until a soft solid.  Some retail products use nitrous oxide to make the whipped cream but the main component is the high fat content making it fluffy and solid because it is able to hold the gas bubbles well.  There are also non-dairy whipped toppings which are usually cheaper and resemble the taste, texture and look of whipped cream but don't usually work as well in baking because their chemistries are different.  Properly whipped cream usually doubles in volume while greater whipping eventually leads to butter (solid) and buttermilk (liquid).

These scans and translations are by Cookie Dough.

Both of these will be used in other recipes throughout the cookbook.  So here it is in the imperial system and step by step because we in America are too stuck up to use the metric system that actually makes sense...

Custard Cream/Creme

Ingredients:

- 2.5 cups milk

- a touch of vanilla essence

- 4oz (0.25lbs) granulated sugar

- 1oz corn starch

- 1oz all purpose flour

- 5 egg yolks

Directions:

1.  Place a large bowl inside of an even larger bowl with ice.

2.  Place the milk, vanilla essence, and a third of the sugar in to a sauce pan and whisk over medium heat.

3.  Place the rest of the sugar in another bowl with the egg yolks and mix well.

4.  Mix in the corn starch and flour until all of the lumps are gone.

5.  Add a quarter of the mixture from step 2 to the bowl and mix well.

6.  Add this to the remaining mixture from step 2 in to the saucepan.

7.  When air bubbles rise to the top, take it off the heat.  It should be fluid and wobbly.

8.  Transfer to the bowl sitting on top of ice cubes that you prepared in step 1.  

9.  Use saran wrap or other cling plastic wrap to tightly seal in the custard cream until it's cool.  

Storage:

Wrapped tightly with cling film, it should keep in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days.  Be sure to use as much as you can in other recipes if you don't finish it.

Whipped Cream:

Ingredients:

- 2.5 cups fresh cream (note: higher fat cream can get too creamy)

- 2oz granulated sugar

- a touch of vanilla essence

Directions:

1.  Place a large bowl inside of an even larger bowl with ice, this is your chilled bowl.

2.  Place fresh cream, vanilla essence and granulated sugar in your chilled bowl.

3.  Quickly whisk over ice until foamy.  Be careful to not allow any water into the mixture.

4.  When you see peaks and the wires on the whisk are each covered in stiff foam, it's done.

Storage:

Use it quickly or refrigerate it.  They can go bad very quickly.

References:
http://ribon.shueisha.co.jp/recette (Ad for Official Cookbook)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipped_cream