Double cream - what is this?

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basenjibabe, Aug 16, 2:05am
I have bought a new cook book and it asks for Double Cream in some recipes. Any idea what i use?
Also asks for soured cream in ml. Is this just the usual sour cream we get in a pottle?
Oh, and one recipe required a low-fat soft cheese (for a brownie). Any suggestions on what i could use?
Cheers

fitness_shack, Aug 16, 2:13am
Double cream is slightly thicker with a higher fat content, I think Anchor put out an equivalent - thickened cream. Well that is what I would use. Soft cheese perhaps Philadelphia?

cookessentials, Aug 16, 2:22am
it has a fat content of about 48% as opposed to about 18% for "ordinary" cream

davidt4, Aug 16, 2:32am
NZ plain "ordinary" cream is 38% fat.

basenjibabe, Aug 16, 2:38am
x1
thank you people :-)Now i know what to look for at the supermarket.

fitness_shack, Aug 16, 2:47am
My father says that soured cream is the same as sour cream - it is what my father's generation called sour cream - he says they used to bake with it both sweet and savoury.

sarahb5, Aug 16, 2:53am
x1
Double cream is not the same as thickened cream - in the UK you can buy single cream which is basically pouring cream that you can't whip and double cream which is almost identical to what we have here and which you can whip. Thickened cream here can't be beaten any thicker but you also can't use it for recipes requiring double cream because of whatever it is they add to it to make it thicken (possibly gelatin or something similar).

Sour cream and soured cream are the same thing - 15ml is a NZ tablespoon.

Low fat soft cheese - I would probably use the reduced fat cream cheese.

cookessentials, Aug 16, 2:56am
should have read 30%

cookessentials, Aug 16, 2:57am
thickened cream has thickener in it.

fitness_shack, Aug 16, 3:07am
yes I probably should have asked what it is for - I buy thickened cream so i dont have to whip cream and it tastes good with chockie cake. I do apologise Basenjibabe.

wildflower, Aug 16, 4:25am
I've seen double cream mentioned in recipes before too and wondered. Makes me want to stick to NZ published cook books where there's no confusion :)

nauru, Aug 16, 4:31am
As post #7 said, double cream (UK) is the same as our ordinary cream.

nfh1, Aug 16, 5:07am
The ordinary cream does not seem as thick as double cream to me.

thumbelina22, Aug 16, 5:12am
that is my understanding too. never had a problem when using our cream

nauru, Aug 16, 5:17am
Coming from the UK where double cream is the norm, I would say that they are pretty much alike. I just use ordinary cream in recipes asking for double cream with no problems.

nfh1, Aug 16, 5:19am
Another Brit here too - it just does not seem as thick to me!

davidt4, Aug 16, 5:28am
English double cream is usually 45 - 48% fat, i. e. slightly heavier than NZ ordinary cream, but for most purposes they behave in the same way. If you especially want a thick cream you could use creme fraiche, which has a delicious tartness and is lower fat than ordinary cream but very thick and stable when heated.

nfh1, Aug 16, 6:03am
I am sure they can be treated the same but it just does not look as good when piled on a scone!

I still miss clotted cream, which I could buy when we arrived in 2003 but I can no longer find - now that does look pretty on scones!

davidt4, Aug 16, 6:08am
That local clotted cream was lovely, but I understand that the company went out of business many years ago.

nfh1, Aug 16, 6:18am
I must not have eaten enough to boost sales!

davidt4, Aug 16, 6:18am
I did my best.

sarahb5, Aug 16, 6:24am
I agree - even when whipped it just isn't as firm

guest, Dec 18, 9:08pm
Clotted Cream is now available from a cafe outside Christchurch "Country Fayre" and also from "Nosh" in Auckland. The normal cream we get in NZ is definitely not double cream there is big difference in fat content. Any cream that is advertised as thick just has gelatin added it does not have the high fat content of double.

guest, Apr 27, 8:35pm
Good grief

guest, Jun 4, 7:11am
I was using a NZ receipe (by Aussie Chef Allyson Gofton!) and she has a receipe using Double Cream. In the local I bumped into Mr Fonterra filling the chiller and he said no such thing here and to use a NZ book!! He suggested just using the "normal" cream... and there is no such thing (anywhere) as Double Cream!
Now if my receipe says 150g tub, how much normal will that be... Nothing is easy!!