Crème Fraîche

Created: October 3, 2022

Ingredients

½ L organic heavy cream (preferably organic and grass-fed). Please do not use UHT milk, because it would not support live cultures.
¼ C whey from yogurt, kefir or from raw milk

Kitchen Equipment

Pot (to warm up the milk if it is pasteurized)
1 half-a-liter size wide-mouth glass jar
Food thermometer
Wooden spoon to mix

Crème Fraîche is cream that has been cultured, and is very rich in good fat, enzymes and probiotics. The flavor and texture of the Crème Fraîche depends on the type of whey you use to culture it.

In this recipe I used whey from a batch of yogurt that I previously made.

The temperature to warm up the cream to make Crème Fraîche depends on the type of cream that you use. Raw cream does not need to be heated at all, but if you prefer to end up with a firmer product, you can heat it only to 100 to 110F.

If you use pasteurized cream, start by pouring it in a pot and putting it on the stove.

Bring the pasteurized milk to 180F, and then let it cool down to 100-110F before culturing.

Pour the cream (raw or pasteurized) into the glass jar.

Add the whey and stir to mix well.

Cap the jar and leave it on the counter for a minimum of 24 hours.

After the 24-hour culturing period, you can refrigerate the jar and enjoy a delicious Crème Fraîc

The longer you culture the cream, the sourer it will become, because the good bacteria (as well as the yeast if you use kefir whey to culture) eat all the milk sugar (lactose), which is responsible of making the dairy sweet, so Crème Fraîche should not be sweet but sour.

Notes

The whey is the liquid that you can see in the yogurt or kefir, and it is a good starter to culture other fermented foods.
Please do not use powdered whey.
To make whey, strain yogurt/kefir through a cheesecloth, a coffee filter or a tea towel, if the yogurt is too runny.