The cream of condensed milk for the cake is the easiest and fastest solution. The main advantage of condensed milk is its “eternal freshness”. Indeed, it will not fail and will not curdle when heated, and the high sugar concentration will also prevent curdling eggs if you decide to make custard.
How to make condensed milk cream with butter
Cream of condensed milk with butter
Take two good products: butter and condensed milk, combine them correctly, add flavor – and there you have it. There is no need to boil, temper, or refrigerate anything. There is only one requirement for the ingredients: the butter and condensed milk must be of the best quality available. Their composition is laconic: pasteurized cream for butter, milk and sugar for condensed milk.
As a rule, for condensed milk cream with butter, these products are taken in equal amounts by weight. This optimum ratio produces an airy, moderately sweet buttercream that can be easily flavored and colored in any color with fat-soluble food dyes. Too much butter would make the cream too heavy and greasy, while an excess of condensed milk would make the cream too liquid and too sweet.
There is nothing complicated about condensed milk and butter cream in terms of cooking technology. There is only one requirement: the butter and condensed milk must be the same, at room temperature.
For this reason, it is recommended to take the butter out of the refrigerator about an hour before making the cream. If you cut it into small pieces and place them in a single layer, the butter will warm up faster. To further speed up the process of “melting” the butter, cut it into pieces and start beating it with a mixer. On a stationary mixer set the attachment “spatula”, a whisk will not cope with this work. The mechanical action will first warm the butter to a temperature of about 20C, and then begin to aerate, increasing in volume and getting a lighter shade. Try the whipped butter: if it is so full of air that it has almost lost its characteristic taste of butter, it is time to add condensed milk to it.
Do not hurry, add literally a couple of tablespoons at a time, each additional portion only after the previous one has completely combined with the butter.
If suddenly, when whipping the cream of condensed milk and butter, instead of a lush, airy mass, you see what looks like “curdled” butter surrounded by sweet liquid, do not be alarmed! Yes, you’ve done something wrong: either you didn’t warm the butter up enough, or you poured in too much condensed milk at one time. The emulsion (and butter is nothing but a fairly stable emulsion of liquid in fat) has disintegrated, but that’s not hard to fix. Either just have patience and keep whipping, or put the bowl on a steam or water bath and warm it up a bit, or blow on the mixer bowl with hot air from a hair dryer. If these techniques don’t help (although they should, you just need patience), whip some butter separately and gradually introduce it into the naughty cream of condensed milk and butter.
For flavoring, vanilla (preferably in liquid form, sugar may not dissolve), cognac or other strong alcohol, any aromatic essences – almond, rum, fruit, cocoa powder or strong brewed coffee will do.
Cream of condensed milk with butter is suitable for joining sponge cakes, making brittle cakes for a Napoleon cake or a honey cake, filling voluminous decorations and preparing cakes for covering with mastic. For filling éclairs and profiteroles, it is a bit dense, but that is a matter of taste.
How to Make the Cream of Buttered Sweetened and Boiled Condensed Milk
Buttered and boiled condensed milk cream
The beauty of boiled condensed milk cream with butter is that we get a caramel-flavored cream without making the caramel itself, which is not the easiest thing to do.
The technology and rules for making the cream are the same as those for making condensed milk cream with butter, and even the basic proportions are the same, 1:1 by weight. But since boiled condensed milk is denser, you can add 20% more than regular condensed milk. For excessive sweetness you can not worry, because the caramelized sugar is perceived as less sweet compared to regular sugar.
Boiled condensed milk can be bought ready-made, but nothing prevents us from boiling it ourselves. Yes, you can directly in a jar immersed in a pot of boiling water. This will take a couple of hours, during which it is important not to let the water boil over. Because if the closed can of condensed milk overheats, it will explode, and you will finally realize what your parents or grandparents were so cheerfully telling you about.
In fact, it’s easy to boil condensed milk in literally 20 minutes. Just transfer it to a thick-bottomed saucepan and add a pinch of baking soda mixed in a spoonful of water. Boil, stirring continuously, until the condensed milk thickens and takes on the color of your desired degree of caramel. Soda is a great catalyst for caramelization, that’s the secret.
Add a little vanilla and, if you like, a pinch of salt to the cream of boiled condensed milk and butter. A little cognac wouldn’t hurt either!
Like any buttercream, condensed milk cream should preferably be used immediately after making it, while the butter is pliable and the cream has maximum volume. But if the cream has been put away in the refrigerator (in a tightly sealed container, not in a pastry bag!), you will have to whip it again before using it. It may even split, but you know how to fix it. You can even freeze it if necessary.
How to Make a Cream of Condensed Cream
For any cream, only cream with a fat content of at least 30% is suitable, and cream of condensed milk with cream is no exception.
By and large, in the simplest version of the cream, condensed milk acts as a thick, stable syrup, and its milky flavor enhances the flavor of the cream.
The ratio of cream to cream can be very different: from a couple of tablespoons of condensed milk per glass (250 ml) to 1:1 by volume (conventionally speaking, “glass to glass”).
In any case, it is important to observe the main rule of whipping cream: it must be well chilled. This means that they should be put in the refrigerator at least 8 hours before use, and not for half an hour. And the freezer won’t speed up the process, and can ruin the whole thing altogether. Condensed milk would also be nice to refrigerate. So put both ingredients in the cold at the same time.
Whip the cream first: they are ready to take the condensed milk when it will hold its shape steadily, will not drip from the whisk, but will not disintegrate into fat and liquid.
Add condensed milk in small portions, but first mix boiled condensed milk with a little whipped cream to lighten its consistency, and then mix it with the main volume of whipped cream.
The cream of boiled condensed milk and cream is thicker and more elastic.
It’s a good idea to stabilize condensed milk cream with modified starch. You can’t just buy it, but it’s the main content of the packets that say “cream stabilizer” or “vanilla pudding” on them. Just be aware that these packets put extra sugar and vanillin in the cream along with the stabilizing starch.
This cream is light in both consistency and preparation and would be great for joining light biscuit or meringue cakes, for Pavlov type cakes, as a filling in eclairs and choux.
For layering thin, crispy cakes, filling tartlets and decorating cupcakes, a richer cream of boiled condensed milk with cream and eggs is a good idea. It consists of three parts: the base (a custard of milk, eggs and starch), boiled condensed milk as a carrier of flavor and aroma, and the “air mass” (whipped cream).
To begin, the usual custard with milk is prepared. After it cools, it is mixed with boiled condensed milk. There are two ways to do it: you can mix it with an immersion blender or use a mixer to beat the sweetened condensed milk first, and then mix in the custard. In the first case you get a pourable mass, in the second – more airy. It is mixed with whipped cream, and it is done with a spatula or whisk by hand, without a mixer, so the volume of cream is affected as little as possible.
Creams of condensed milk with cream retain their plasticity for a long time, so you can prepare them in advance and keep in the refrigerator until used. But you can’t freeze them, because cream doesn’t like sub-zero temperatures.
How to make condensed milk and lemon juice cream
The cream made of condensed milk and lemon juice is not magic, but the result of physical and chemical processes called coagulation (thickening) and flocculation (sticking). These processes occur in dairy products under the influence of acid, which has been known since ancient times. They are the basis for the Scottish dessert, Posset, the American dessert classic, Key Lime Pie, and the famous Italian Mascarpone Cheese.
It usually takes about 60 ml of lemon juice to thicken 400 g of condensed milk. The finished cream may seem sour, but that’s its specialty and beauty. Balance this sourness by using a cream of condensed milk and lemon juice in combination with sweet cakes or fruit.
To make condensed milk lemon juice cream, the quality of the condensed milk is very important. It should contain only two products: milk and sugar. As soon as there are “milk fat substitutes,” stabilizers or preservatives, it’s all gone! They simply won’t allow the milk to curdle when exposed to acid.
But if condensed milk is really milk, it takes a few minutes and minimal effort to make the cream. Transfer the condensed milk to a bowl, squeeze the lemon juice into it, stir and leave it for 15 minutes. You will notice how the condensed milk has thickened, resembling cream cheese with lemon flavor. Basically, you can stop there if you want to serve condensed milk cream with lemon juice as a standalone dessert or as part of a trifle or other dessert in a glass.
And if you plan to use condensed milk cream with lemon juice for a cake, beat the resulting mixture with a mixer until it forms a lush froth.
The most natural flavoring for such a cream is finely grated lemon peel. By the way, the juice of lime and grapefruit may well replace lemon, but the orange lacks its own acidity, but you can help it by adding a solution of citric acid or juice.