{top tip} Save Your Money, Make Créme Fraiche at Home

In my home kitchen, I use a lot of shortcuts and tricks gleaned from my checkered pants past. From time to time I will pull one out of my toque and share it with you! If you have questions or requests, leave them in the comments and I’ll tackle them in a future post.

Does it drive you mad when you have to buy créme fraiche for a recipe, and you find that it costs up to $7.99 for 7 ounce container? At over a dollar an ounce, you might as well be buying gold nuggets, or drugs. (Not really. Stay in school! Drugs are bad.) If you do a little planning ahead, you can make your own créme fraiche at home–at a fraction of the price. Lots of restaurants make it in bulk this way, because even at wholesale prices, créme fraiche can break a restaurant’s budget.

You need to do about 2 minutes of work and about 1-3 days of waiting (depending on how hot it is where you put it.) Here’s the skinny:

• Put heavy cream in a container with buttermilk. Use 1 Tablespoon of buttermilk for each cup of heavy cream.
• Cover tightly with plastic wrap and use a knife to poke holes in the plastic wrap.
• Set the container up high and out of the way in your kitchen, where it’s warmer.
• Check it the next day and stir it a few times with a spatula. If it’s not thick enough, let it go longer.
• When it’s at your preferred consistency, put it in a container with a cover and store it in the refrigerator. It will keep for a couple of weeks!
• Note: If you use ultra-pasteurized cream, vs. pasteurized, it will take longer for the process to occur.