I have been making homemade yogurt for a few months now and I can’t even describe how lovely it is. It is mild and creamy and just plain wonderful. And when I mix in a spoonful of our strawberry freezer jam…well, you know those yoplait “that good” commercials? This is way better.
One of these days I’ll get around to posting my recipe, but today I thought I’d share something a bit easier. You see, all my yogurt success has inspired me to branch out and try making other dairy products at home.
This week’s experiment?
Sour cream.
I found an easy, albeit a bit confusing, recipe here.
The recipe lists the following for ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream or buttermilk (or even white vinegar will work)
I decided to make two batches side by side, one made with sour cream, the other with vinegar to see how they would compare.
But I was confused by the “even white vinegar will work” part of the recipe. Should I use 1/4 white vinegar or just a few tablespoons? I went with the full 1/4 cup, just to see.
The recipe says to put your ingredients in a jar, cap it, and shake. Then you let it sit at room temperature “for about 24 hours or until it becomes very thick.”
I know, several of you are saying “ewww!” right now, but really, what did you think sour cream was? It is cream that has, um, soured a bit. But not in a make-you-sick sort of way. More of a wow-soured-cream-is-really-good-please-pass-the-enchiladas kind of way.
Anyway, I checked my jars at 24-ish hours. The one made with vinegar was a bit thicker than the one made with sour cream, but neither was anywhere near the right consistency.
I tasted them. The one made with sour cream tasted a bit like sour cream, but bland. The one made with vinegar tasted far too vinegary. I continued to let them sit.
After about 40 hours the vinegar one was set up nicely, but still too vinegary tasting. The sour cream one was still quite soupy and still pretty mild, so I mixed them together and shook the jar for a bit to thicken things up.
Eureka! It worked! Homemade sour cream!
Note to self: Next time just use a few tablespoons of vinegar.
The texture is far more creamy and thick than the store bought variety, more like a dense whipped cream. It still tasted a bit more vinegary that the stuff at the store, but it was subtle. We spooned some over cherry-filled crepes and it was really good.
Shoe shopping good.
I’d like to thank the academy good.
It was that good.
*****
Linked at Tasty Tuesday and Works for me Wednesday.
