It's been a while...but I'm back to blog!
It's fair to say that a lot has been occurring in the vegan scene in the past few years.
Veganism has expanded exponentially in the U.K, no doubt largely due to the success of the Veganuary campaign.
As a result, mainstream food companies have taken note, and they now all want a slice of that sweet vegan pie!
Enter: Elmlea Plant.
Up until recently, Elmlea solely specialised in dairy products, but in December 2019 they launched a single, and double, plant based "cream alternative."
Previous to this we have been lucky enough to have Alpro single soya cream in the U.K.
Which is all very well poured over a banana.
But sometimes you want something a bit MORE.
Something to whip it. Eat off a spoon. Dollop onto things. To fill a cake or adorn a trifle.
This is where Elmlea have upped the ante, producing not just a vegan single cream, but also a vegan double cream. (don't make me say "alternative" again -- you know what I mean!)
As soon as I saw the little whisk symbol on the back, I knew I had to try whipping it up!
Lucky for me, I own a pretty decent Kenwood mixer, with a balloon whisk attachment.
This is what I used to whip up the first carton of cream, and most of the subsequent cartons. (I may have practised a fair few times, you know, in the name of research...).
I was pleasantly surprised to find the cream whipped up really easily, within about 5 minutes, doubling in size and becoming quite thick.
The flavour isn't overly sweet, so for my next attempt, I sweetened it using icing sugar and flavoured with vanilla.
This made the cream much more pleasing in taste (for my preferences anyway) and more suitable for using as a filling in a cake (or in other dessert applications.)
I had designs on using it in an old fashioned Victoria sponge recipe and knew it would need to stiffen up to hold its own as a filling.
Google suggested a few options for stabilising dairy whipped cream, and so far I have tried these:
Icing sugar alone
Cream of tartar and icing sugar
Cornflour and icing sugar
The attempt with icing sugar alone didn't hold up very well as a filling, and most of it oozed out of the cake.
The cream of tartar alongside the icing sugar improved the thickness quite a bit, as did chilling overnight, and this batch made the best cake filling.
The cornflour attempt remained quite soft (although was still good enough to top our Xmas day trifle!)
A Facebook follower suggested a cream stabilising product from Dr Oetker, so I'll be trying that next.
I'll update here once I have, as well as on my
facebook page.
Elmlea double cream costs around £1 and can be purchased from selected Sainsburys store.
The ingredients are:
Faba Bean preparation (Water, 1% Faba Bean Protein), 31% Vegetable Oils (Palm, Rapeseed), Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Emulsifiers (Sunflower Lecithin, Sugar Esters of Fatty Acids, Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Stabilisers (Guar Gum, Locust Bean Gum), Natural Flavour, Salt, Colour (Carotene).
Side note: I have also tried "Soyatoo" cream whipped up before, and cartons of the delightfully named Schlagfix cream. Both were good, but are a bit harder to find.
Extra note: Dairy Elmlea isn't *technically* classed as a cream either, and is still a "cream alternative." However, rather than using entirely plant-based ingredients, it uses a blend of buttermilk and vegetable oil! Don't get caught out! Make sure yours is the plant-based vegan version, and dairy free cream cake goodness will await you!
