Tasting and pastry

The culinary success of cream is due to the multiple roles it plays in improving taste, texture, binding and even presentation. Its silky, creamy, smooth and shiny texture is why the term “creamy” is so widely used by tasters to describe the smoothness of a product.

Cream enhances aromas and reveals flavours without dominating, and respects the subtlety of food. By mixing hot or cold cream with another ingredient, it will either thicken or soften the consistency of that ingredient while giving off a tangy note. It also binds and stabilizes hot preparations: it will soften stuffing and egg dishes, making them more cohesive.

Other advantages of cream: it reduces the bitterness of cocoa, the acidity of lemon, and tempers the pungency of certain fruit and the astringency of others. It improves the fondant used on pastries and turns fruit into mousse. Finally, its willingness to be worked results in a voluptuous cloud when whipped.

Gourmet and delicious, rich cream brings roundness and power that intensifies recipes. It coats the mouth and gives a lasting quality to pastries that no other raw material can. The taste of cream is not the only attribute to celebrate: it also provides a rich, smooth sensation.

In addition to these culinary and gastronomic qualities that have made cream an indispensable go-to ingredient for French pastry chefs, it also has obvious practical and dietary qualities.

Because cream is rich in water, it is the least greasy type of fat. Soft, luxurious and light! Because cream has its place in the finest kitchens around the world, its use has adapted to the needs, practices and new expectations of chefs: progress in the diversification of creams has allowed for greater control when cooking and the packaging has allowed it to be sold on store shelves (instead of refrigerators), providing greater freedom of use and storage. All of this combines to make cream an essential ingredient in any sophisticated pastry!