Vegan Heavy Cream Substitutes: Cook, Whip, Bake

Hello lovelies,

A few days ago I wrote up how to replace an egg in a batter, and the question that came back most often was the next one in the series: what about the cream?

Cream is the trickier one, because there are now a dozen cartons on the shelf and not one of them tells you what it is for. Some say cooking cream, some say creamer, some say whippable. And anyone who has spent half an hour trying to whip oat cream knows exactly how that ends.

I learned this by trial and error, with a few ruined desserts along the way. What I know now is that there is no secret to it. It is physics, and it fits in one sentence.

What does cream actually do in a dish?

Cream does 2 jobs in the kitchen that have nothing to do with each other: it makes things creamy, and it holds air when you whip it.

Creamy means fat and liquid combine with everything else into something velvety, so the soup rounds out and the sauce gains body. Whipping is something else entirely: beating forces air in, and the fat has to be stable enough to hold that air in place.

Almost every plant alternative can do the first. Very few can do the second. That is exactly where the cartons on the shelf diverge, and exactly why some say creamer and others say whippable.

It is the same principle as the egg, which also does two separate jobs and therefore cannot be covered by one substitute. How that works is in my guide to replacing eggs in baking.

That also explains the names on the carton. They say creamer, cooking cream or whippable topping, and most people read that as marketing. It is really a naming question: cream from cow's milk carries a legal definition, so plant products are sold under names of their own. Which turns out to be useful. The name on the package tells you nothing about quality, but quite a lot about purpose. Creamer and cooking cream are meant for cooking, whippable is meant for whipping, and once you know that, the shelf gets a great deal easier to read.

So the first question is never "which plant cream is best." It is: does it need to cook, or does it need to stiffen?

Which substitute fits which job?

Sort by job, not by ingredient. That leaves two or three options per case instead of a dozen cartons.

There is only one rule for scaling: plant alternatives replace cream by volume, not by fat. 200 ml (3/4 cup) of creamer is the same amount as 200 ml of cream, but it carries considerably less fat. In a soup you will never notice. In a sauce that should turn genuinely silky, something is missing at the end, and that is exactly when a spoonful of cashew butter or the teaspoon of starch from the last row earns its place. Coconut milk runs the other way: it brings more fat than cream, so in rich dishes use a little less and make up the difference with broth or water.

Two rows cover almost everything here: oat creamer lives in the fridge for weeknights, and a jar of cashew butter sits in the cupboard for the days something should be really good. Most of our creamy soups start with squash, and that is all in my complete pumpkin guide.

Pumpkin curry with chickpeas and mie noodles

Creamy vegan veggie pasta

Pumpkin soup with apple and parsnip

Vegan pumpkin lasagne

Why won't plant-based cream whip?

Because it has no solid fat. A foam is not held up by beating, it is held up by a network of fat crystals, and most plant fats cannot build one.

The process is well studied. A study on the microstructure of whipped cream puts it plainly: for a cream foam to hold, it needs roughly 30 percent fat, and at least 40 percent of that fat has to be crystalline at the moment of whipping. Those crystals pierce the membrane around the fat droplets, hook into one another, and form the scaffold that keeps the air bubbles in place.

And here is the part almost nobody writes down: which fatty acids that fat is built from decides whether the network holds. A study in the journal Food Chemistry compared five different fats: those rich in lauric and myristic acid form small crystals and a dense network. Those rich in palmitic and oleic acid form a weak one.

That explains everything. Coconut fat is rich in lauric acid, which is why coconut milk works. Oat, soy, rice and almond are mostly unsaturated fats such as oleic acid, which is why they do not, and why the best hand mixer in the world will not stiffen them.

If you have ever wondered why the ingredient list on a whippable vegan cream says hydrogenated palm kernel oil, that is why. Commercial plant-based whipping creams are built mainly on palm and palm kernel oil, according to research on alternative fats for whipping cream, and with those they reach a foam stability that holds up against dairy cream.

How do you whip coconut milk?

Use full-fat canned coconut milk, chilled overnight, and take only the solid part from the top.

Here is how I do it:

1. Chill. The unopened can goes in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. Not the freezer.
2. Separate. Open it carefully without shaking. The firm white cream sits on top, the clear coconut water underneath. Only the cream goes in the bowl; save the water for a smoothie or a curry.
3. Keep everything cold. Bowl and beaters in the freezer for 10 minutes. Warm equipment means soft crystals, and soft crystals mean no foam.
4. Whip. 2 to 3 minutes, no longer. Coconut cream firms up faster than dairy and can absolutely be overwhipped.

One detail decides success or failure: it has to be full-fat. Light coconut milk simply does not carry enough fat to build the crystal network, and it fails every time. A glance at the label before you buy saves the disappointment later.

And yes, you taste the coconut. With chocolate, berries and anything wintry with cinnamon that is a gift. With a delicate vanilla dessert it is not, and then a store-bought whippable cream is the more honest choice.

Why does plant-based cream curdle in a sauce?

Almost always because of acid or too much heat, and usually both at once.

The typical sequence: the sauce is simmering, the creamer goes in, then a squeeze of lemon or a splash of wine, and suddenly there are little flecks floating in the pan. The dish is not ruined, but it no longer looks like anything.

Three rules fix it, and they run on autopilot in our kitchen now:

Acid goes in last. Lemon, vinegar, wine and very acidic tomatoes get stirred in once the pan is off the heat, or barely ticking over.

Never boil hard. Plant creamers handle warmth but not a rolling boil. Turn the heat down before the creamer goes in.

A little starch as insurance. 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, slaked in 2 tablespoons of cold water and stirred through, stabilizes the sauce noticeably. This is the trick that works most reliably for me.

The most common place this happens is not the pan at all, it is the coffee cup. Coffee is acidic and it is hot, so both triggers arrive at once. If your oat milk splits in the cup, it is almost never the milk, it is that combination. What helps: do not pour it in fridge-cold, warm it slightly first, and let the coffee sit for a moment before you pour. Products labeled barista contain an acidity regulator for exactly this reason. That is the entire difference from the standard version.

If it happens anyway: off the heat, and a quick pass with an immersion blender. In a pureed soup you will never know.

How do you make cashew cream?

Soak 100 g (3.5 oz) cashews, drain them, and blend with 200 ml (3/4 cup) fresh water until smooth. That is the whole thing.

Cashew cream is the substitute that gets closest to real cream in a dish, because it is mild, it does not curdle, and it works in savory and sweet alike.

On soaking: 4 hours in cold water is ideal, overnight is better. In a hurry, 30 minutes in boiling water will do. Then throw the soaking water away and blend with fresh water, or the cream tastes faintly bitter.

The water controls the thickness. 200 ml to 100 g gives a pouring-cream consistency for soups and pasta. 120 ml (1/2 cup) gives a thick cream for cakes and fillings. 300 ml (1 1/4 cups) gives something closer to a milk for sauces.

Without a high-speed blender it comes out slightly grainy. Longer soaking helps, and so does a fine sieve afterwards. It keeps 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator and thickens as it sits, so start a little thinner than you want it.

And if you need sour cream or creme fraiche: stir 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and a pinch of salt into the finished cashew cream. Ten minutes in the refrigerator and it tastes distinctly tangy and firms up a little at the same time. For a dip, for baked potatoes, or as a spoonful on a soup, that is our standard answer, and it needs no extra product at all.

If cashews are out, blended silken tofu goes surprisingly far, especially in fillings and desserts. What else silken tofu can do is in my guide to cooking silken tofu.

3 basic recipes with cashews – milk, sweet cream and sour cream

Chocolate orange mousse with aquafaba

The perfect vegan cheesecake – with silken tofu

Pancakes with apple-cinnamon-whipped cream

When do you not need cream at all?

In soups, gratins and a lot of sauces, usually not at all. There the cream is only providing body, and you can get that another way.

This is the section I wish someone had handed me years ago. You buy a carton of creamer for a dish that never needed one.

Blended vegetables are the simplest route. A potato, a piece of celery root, or just part of the soup itself pureed smooth will make it velvety without a drop of cream. How creamy a squash soup gets from the squash alone surprises most people.

Starch does for a gratin exactly what the cream was doing: it holds everything together. 1 teaspoon slaked in a little cold liquid is enough for a medium dish.

Legumes are the most underrated option. A few spoonfuls of white beans or chickpeas blended into a soup make it creamy and add protein along the way. How to cook them so they actually go soft is in my guide to cooking legumes.

Nut butter is the fastest option of all. 2 tablespoons of cashew or almond butter stirred straight into a finished soup make it creamy in seconds. Nothing to soak, nothing to blend. In tomato soup I reach for cashew rather than almond, which tends to take over.

What you give up is a little richness. What you gain is a lighter dish and one less carton in the cart.

Lovelies, what I like about this is the same thing I liked about the egg: you do not have to memorize a dozen products, you have to ask one question. Does it need to cook, or does it need to stiffen? Everything else follows, and the shelf at the store suddenly makes sense. If you want something more structured for the soup season ahead, have a look at our e-books in the shop.

Tell me in the comments: which plant cream has earned a permanent spot in your fridge?

Yours, Verena

Recipes to try

Christmas menu Part IV – baked apple with cashew cinnamon ice cream

Creamy vegan veggie pasta

Pumpkin curry with chickpeas and mie noodles

3 basic recipes with cashews – milk, sweet cream and sour cream