What is the difference between heavy cream and whipping cream?
Whipped cream is an essential for so many desserts. Us it in mousse, on top of pie, next to a brownie, or inside a roulade. Whipped cream is one of those foods that can instantly turn an adult back into a kid, begging to lick the edible cloud off of a beater.
You can make whipped cream from heavy cream, heavy whipping cream, or whipping cream. And standing in front of the diary case in the store, I’ve often wondered which one to buy.
Some recipes, but not all, specify which cream to use. Many cookbook writers specify heavy cream. On the other hand, Julia Child specifies whipping cream for mousse in the 1971 edition of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I’ve followed a middle path, specifying heavy cream but offering whipping cream as a substitute in my Chocolate Mocha Roulade, Creamy Chocolate Mousse with Orange Liqueur and Easy Lemon Chiffon Mousse recipes.
Here’s what you need to know:
The difference between heavy cream and whipping cream begins with fat content.
Heavy cream has a higher fat content than “plain” (i.e. not heavy) whipping cream. Heavy cream contains between 36 and 40% fat. By contrast, whipping cream has more than 30% but less than 36% fat according to the FDA definitions of those terms. (Whipping cream is also sometimes called “light whipping cream”, to distinguish it from heavy whipping cream.) While this difference in fat content might seem large in percentage terms, it translates to a difference of roughly 5 calories per tablespoon – 50 for heavy cream and 45 for whipping cream. The higher butterfat count in heavy cream also means that it all 50 of its calories are from fat vs. 40 calories from fat in whipping cream.
A second and important difference – ingredients
True heavy cream contains nothing but the cream taken off of the top of milk.
Commercially prepared whipping cream also contains stabilizers and other chemicals that help the cream to whip easily and stay firm once it is whipped. The whipping cream I checked out in my local grocery contains mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 80, and carrageenan.
So what is heavy whipping cream?
It is a commercial product that includes the higher butterfat of heavy cream and the stabilizers and other chemicals found in “plain” (i.e. lower fat) whipping cream. If you want to stabilize heavy cream without the chemicals, Rose Levy Berenbaum, in her Baking Bible and on her blog, provides a recipe for increasing the stability of heavy cream using cornstarch.
All three – heavy cream, heavy whipping cream, and whipping cream – whip up just fine with the right equipment (cold beaters and bowl, preferably in a cool room) and a bit of patience.
David Lebovitz, Rose Levy Berenbaum, Dorie Greenspan, and Abby Dodge all recommend using heavy cream (over whipping cream.) In her latest book, The Everyday Baker, Abby Dodge says that the heavier butter content makes heavy cream whip faster and firmer than its lower fat counterpart. But she doesn’t differentiate between “plain” heavy cream or heavy whipping cream. And she points out that “in a pinch, you can substitute whipping cream.”
Which cream do I use?
When I can find it, I use heavy cream (without the stabilizers and preservatives.) However, I have used whipping cream and heavy whipping cream on occasion and honestly, I don’t think I (or anyone I served the desserts to) could tell which cream was used. I have not done a blind taste test with each type of cream whipped and served without other flavors to mask their taste or texture. Have you?
Sides Notes
Cream and pasteurization
In his book Ready for Dessert, David Lebovitz suggests that heavy cream from local dairies is better-tasting than mass produced, ultra-pasteurized heavy cream. Ultra-pasteurization is a higher temperature version of pasteurization, sometimes labelled as UHT (ultra-high temperature) on dairy products. It can change the taste of dairy as compared to “regular” or lower temperature pasteurization. I haven’t used locally produced heavy cream, but I checked my mass-marketed heavy cream and found that it too was low temperature, not ultra-pasteurized. (The heavy whipping cream and whipping cream that I found were both ultra-pasteurized.) I’d be interested to try a taste test of pasteurized and ultra-pasteurized cream too.
Definitions of various types of cream around the world
The Wikipedia entry for cream has an interesting chart on the relative fat content of heavy and whipping cream in several countries and also information on the names used in noted countries for various types of cream.
Which cream do you choose for whipped cream and why?
Barry says
Interesting, but here in my part of Canada, whipping cream is 35% milk fat. I’ve always use icing sugar to sweeten it when whipping it for desserts. It dissolves quickly and the corn starch in it does a really outstanding job of stabalizing the cream. I’ve even made desserts like a Black Forest Cake a day in advance using this stabilized cream and it holds up really well.
Laura says
Barry, Thanks for stopping by and for causing me to delved deeper into this subject. As a result of your comment, I went directly to to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) definitions of heavy and whipping cream, the legal standard in the U.S. Your description of the Canadian milk fat percentage in whipping cream (35%) would indeed fall under that FDA definition. I think the reason the source I originally used cited only 30% is that the lower percentage is more common in U.S. whipping cream. I have updated the post to reflect the FDA definition and have also included a note on the interesting Wikipedia entry for cream, that includes milkfat percentages for various types of cream around the world.
Sandy says
You really piqued my curiosity. I can’t wait to get home and see what I have. If it has chemical ms I’m not going to be a happy camper. I believe it’s heavy whipping cream.
Thank you for educating us.
Laura says
Sandy, Glad I helped you to understand what’s in the food you bought. The difference always mystified me, so I was determined to understand it.
Alisa Fleming says
This is actually so helpful for me in better understanding when I’m making recipes dairy-free, too, Laura. Thank you!
Mary Kotan-Brookstein says
I had no idea there was a difference between the three types of cream. I did, however, know there is a big difference between UHT/UT and HTST for pasteurized vs Ulta pasteurized. I know that when I have anything UT/UHT it causes gastric issues for me, similar to those who experience lactose intolerance. While UT/UHT is an ultra-high temperature for a very short amount of time, it actually changes the entire chemical makeup of milk and cream. HTST is high temp/slow time and is not as high a temperature as UT/UHT. While there are lots of studies done by the dairy industry to show that shelf-stable dairy products (UT/UHT is often shelf-stable) is perfectly fine, there are no studies showing this to be the case which are NOT by the dairy industry. For me, there is a huge difference in digestion and I have had to be very cautious about what I purchase.
Thanks for the information. I am a new fan of your site and enjoy everything I read here, including the recipes. I am a fan because I find recipes to be a guideline rather than a written-in-stone method.
Laura says
Mary, Many thanks for your kind words about the site. I didn’t know about the lack of studies done by independent agencies on shelf stable dairy products, but I have seen references that the ultra high temperatures change the taste of the dairy product in question.Also interested to hear that the UT/UHT products cause problems for you – sorry to hear that and glad that you’re aware of the problem and can avoid it by reading labels and asking questions when you shop. Is it an issue for you when you go out to eat?
Mary Brookstein says
Not generally a problem when I eat out as I am diabetic and have to watch my diet, avoiding all artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup and most processed foods. I tend to do scratch cooking at home and find that eating what I cook or eating out at family-owned restaurants tends to keep me safe from the chemical element of our diet. Thanks for asking. Thanks for caring about all of us and providing answers to questions we may not have thought of…yet.
Laura says
Mary, So glad that you’re able to enjoy both home-cooked and restaurant food and maintain your good health all the while.
Betsy @ Desserts Required says
Great information! I remember seeing light whipping cream and heavy whipping cream many years ago but at this point I no longer see light whipping cream.
Laura says
Betsy,
Interesting that you no longer see “light” whipping cream. We still have it in the DC area, although it’s typically called whipping cream, with the higher fat stuff called heavy whipping cream.
jess says
interesting – i wonder what it is i am using when i skim the cream from my raw milk?
Laura says
Jess,
I did some research and according to the information on the Trickling Springs Dairy website, it appears that what you get when you skim the cream from unhomogenized milk is heavy cream. Although the Trickling Springs milk is pasteurized, I don’t think that a difference.
Here’s the info from that site http://tricklingspringscreamery.com/what-is-creamline-milk/498/:
Ram:
July 30, 2013 at 12:29 pm
Is it possible to make Heavy Cream from the cream line whole milk? I understand that leaving this milk in a bowl in the refrigerator should get the cream on the top that can then be skimed, but would that be really heavy cream? or is it soemthing that requires special machinery (like the commercial centrifuges) to make heavy cream?.
Any feedback is appreciated!
Joe:
September 11, 2013 at 5:47 pm
That is correct. You would then have Heavy Cream. The longer you let it sit the higher in butterfat it will be.
The reason it gets hard is because you are actually at a higher butterfat percentage than heavy cream which stays fairly liquid.
Our heavy cream is not homogenized so it will at times start getting a Cream top to it as well which is just some of the fat separating to the top.
jess says
hey thanks – i know it makes great butter 😉
and i do know by experience the longer i let it sit the thicker it gets – sometimes almost like paste! its from jerseys and brown swiss so theres quite a bit of it and quite a bit more fat i think.
appreciate the info.
Laura says
Jess, I would love to taste your butter:)! Yum.
jess says
🙂
i make it in bulk every thanksgiving – so, youve got a standing invitation! 😉
Patricia @ Grab a Plate says
Great post with good info! Maybe you’ve seen me staring blankly into the dairy coolers at the grocery store!
Laura says
Patricia, Many thanks – if you were there, maybe you saw me, looking blankly at the various options – until I decided to do this post:)
Nota says
Can u make ice cream using 35 percent whip cream instead of heavy cream
Laura says
Nota, Yes, I believe that would work.
Justyna Wojtczak says
What heavy cream is the best? This link explains the various types sold in Poland – but not in the US. https://justynawojtczak.com/big-test-heavy-creams/
Laura says
Justyna – Thanks for stopping by. I’m afraid that the brands described in your post are not sold in the US (at least not in most stores) so I had to edit your comment to reflect that – and avoid my American readers going to your post thinking they were getting information they could use in buying cream in the US.