Reverse-Engineered Product: Vegan Heavy Whipping Cream

Heavy whipping cream is a culinary punching bag. At our most gentle, we cooks stir it into iced coffee – but we might also blend it into hot soup, churn and freeze it for ice cream, or whip and pipe it onto cakes.

Per a product review, Country Crock Homestyle Dairy Free Heavy Whipping Cream proved to handle it all. It even baked into the most beautiful shortcakes! But the only place I can find it is at a comparatively pricey local grocer about 30 minutes away. And what if, like so many other plant-based substitutions, it unexpectedly disappeared?

I needed a future-proof solution. In seeking one, I referenced:

• the Ingredients on my favorite product
• the Nutrition Facts
• other recipes

These sources, combined with some prior knowledge, led to theoretical formulae and practical tests which culminated in my ultimate recipe.

Ingredients

The first thing I study when I reverse-engineer a product is its package. Although some companies bend laws to make products look healthier, they must list ingredients in descending order by weight somehow or another.

Country Crock Homestyle Dairy Free Heavy Whipping Cream lists:

• PLANT MILK (WATER, LENTIL PROTEIN)
• PLANT-BASED OIL BLEND FROM COCONUT AND CANOLA OILS
• SUGAR
• MODIFIED CORNSTARCH
• SUCROSE ESTERS OF FATTY ACID
• NATURAL FLAVOR
• MONO & DI-GLYCERIDES
• SALT
• GUAR GUM
• SUNFLOWER LECITHIN
• LOCUST BEAN GUM
• BETA-CAROTENE (COLOR)

Immediately, I knew I had to resort to substitutions. I prefer to keep my ingredients to “grocery store status” so you can theoretically buy and make any of my recipes today.

There are some exceptions! My vegan Jell-O, for instance, requires carrageenan. But all the commercial ingredients in this list are easy to replace; natural flavors, to omit.

Lentil Milk → Soy or Pea Milk

Between all the grocery stores within a reasonable driving distance from me, none carries lentil milk. And making it for an already involved formula seemed mean – to both of us!

I thus resorted to other legume milks: soy and pea. Soy proteins behave similarly to dairy proteins, and pea proteins behave similarly to soy.

Unfortunately, extensive testing repeatedly proved that Ripple Unsweetened Original Pea Milk does not work for heavy whipping “cream”; only pure soy milk (such as the one from West Life) does.

My hypothesis is that the added ingredients in Ripple’s product interfere with critical ratios and reactions for whipping. I plan to revisit this post using homemade lentil and pea milks, but until I do, I can only recommend pure soy.

That said, if you don’t plan to whip this recipe, almost any “milk” will work!

Modified Cornstarch → Tapioca Flour/Starch

Modified cornstarch and tapioca flour/starch are practically cousins; the latter is basically the home cook’s version of the former. Both prevent emulsions from breaking in hot applications such as soup.

Depending on your plans for this whipping “cream”, you might not need tapioca. But even this black coffee lover will tell you it’s divine in her fresh brew.

Sucrose Esters of Fatty Acid, Mono & Di-Glycerides, Sunflower Lecithin → Aquafaba

The Ingredients list may as well read: PLANT-BASED BLEND OF EMULSIFIERS (SUCROSE ESTERS OF FATTY ACID, MONO & DI-GLYCERIDES, SUNFLOWER LECITHIN).

A similar network of simple and complex carbohydrates and proteins is present in aquafaba.

Locust Bean Gum → Xanthan Gum

👏 grocery 👏 store 👏 status

You can order locust bean gum to be delivered tomorrow, but you might be able to run to Walmart and find xanthan gum now. As xanthan and guar gums became staples in a growing number of gluten-free kitchens, they became staples on many shelves too.

You can omit gums if you don’t plan to whip this heavy “cream”. Otherwise, it’s a critical stabilizer.

Beta-Carotene → Turmeric

Do you want to make carrot extract? Neither did I. So rather than procuring color from a fresh root, I opted for one I can buy dried and ground.

It is completely optional.

My Final List

• UNSWEETENED PLAIN SOY MILK
• REFINED COCONUT OIL
• CANOLA OIL
• AQUAFABA
• GRANULATED SUGAR
• TAPIOCA FLOUR/STARCH
• KOSHER SALT
• XANTHAN GUM
• GUAR GUM
• DRIED GROUND TURMERIC

Nutrition Facts

This is a wellspring of information!

Total Fat

Did you know? Legally, cream can only be labeled “heavy whipping cream” if it’s at least 36% fat. Many higher-quality products, in fact, are closer to 40%.

For non-dairy products, all systems go; Country Crock Homestyle Dairy Free Heavy Whipping Cream is merely 30%. (4.5 g total fat per serving ÷ 15 g per serving = 30%.)

I defend my informed start at 30%! However, this percentage failed miserably. I ultimately landed on 40% with guidance from other recipes and experimentation detailed below.

Saturated & Unsaturated Fats

(I hate this F word by the way. Read the opening of my Reverse-Engineered Vegan Butter post to learn why.)

Let’s start simply: Saturated fats like coconut oil are solid at room temperature; unsaturated, canola, liquid.

Yet coconut oil is actually mostly saturated with some unsaturated fat, and canola is the opposite. So despite the Nutrition Facts cleanly stating 3.5 g saturated fat per 15-g serving, I could not simply translate that into 23 g coconut (and 7 g canola oil) per 100 g.

Let’s continue complicatedly:

FOOD	TOTAL FAT per SERVING	% FAT per serving	SATURATED FAT per SERVING	% SATURATED FAT of TOTAL FAT	UNSATURATED FAT per SERVING	% UNSATURATED FAT of TOTAL FAT
Country Crock Homestyle Dairy Free Heavy Whipping Cream	4.5 g per 15 mL/g	30%	3.5 g	77.8%	1	22.2%
Coconut Oil	14 g per 15 mL/14 g	100%	12 g	86%	2 g	14%
Canola Oil	14 g per 15 mL/14 g	100%	1 g	7%	13 g	93%

Based on the product I aimed to copy, I needed a recipe that’s 30 g fat per 100 g.

C = coconut oil; A = canola oil

C + A = 30

Now, of that 30 g fat, I need 77.8% to be saturated (23.3 g); 22.2%, unsaturated (6.7 g). I can therefore continue with one of two equations:

• 0.86C + 0.07A = 23.3
• 0.14C + 0.93A = 6.7

The next step is to isolate a variable using the initial equation, C + A = 30.

C = 30 – A  or  A = 30 – C

Doing so leads to four possible equations:

• 0.86C + 0.07(30 – C) = 23.3, C ≈ 27
• 0.86(30 – A) + 0.07A = 23.3, A ≈ 3
• 0.14C + 0.93(30 – C) = 6.7, C ≈ 27
• 0.14(30 – A) + 0.93A = 6.7, A ≈ 3

And 27:3 is a neat 9:1 ratio! So when I had to adjust my recipe to be 40% fat, I simply maintained this relationship using 36 g refined coconut and 4 g canola oil per 100 g. (Indeed, the ultimate 500-g recipe is 40% fat with 200 g refined coconut and canola oil in a 9:1 ratio at 180 and 20 g respectively.)

You could call this overkill, and you’d be right; replacing the canola with more refined coconut oil only makes this recipe slightly less pourable when chilled. But I did the work and it works! From here, you can decide how meticulous you want to be.

Sugar

Sugar is the third ingredient – and, the Nutrition Facts report 0 g sugar per serving?

Both are correct because a label can say 0 g if the amount is 0.4 g or fewer. At most, therefore, Country Crock Homestyle Dairy Free Heavy Whipping Cream contains 0.4 g sugar per 15-g serving, or:

• 2.7 g sugar per 100 g
• 13 g sugar per 500 g

I started with 12 g sugar per 500 g because that’s a nice, level tablespoon of sugar. However, the end result was too sweet. I ultimately landed on 2 ½ tsp (10 g).

Salt

Not for the first time, taste more accurately indicated the amount of salt I needed than the Nutrition Facts.

My prototype contains 5 mg sodium per serving, or:

• 33 mg per 100 g
• 167 mg per 500 g

One-quarter teaspoon of my go-to salt, Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, contains 280 mg sodium. I therefore needed a heaping ⅛ tsp (0.63 mL) per 500-g recipe.

Yet soy is sweeter than lentil milk. For the versatile product I desired, I had to adjust up to ¼ tsp (1.25 mL) kosher salt to balance it.

Rest assured, per 500 g, isn’t a lot! I was careful not to lose all sweetness as dairy creams are mildly sweet too.

Other Recipes

% Fat

When I discovered I had to deviate from the 30% fat ratio of Country Crock Homestyle Dairy Free Heavy Whipping Cream, I looked to other bloggers and recipe developers to see where their ratios land.

• “Vegan Whipped Cream” by Richard Makin, AKA the School Night Vegan
  • 200 g refined coconut oil: 462.5 g recipe → 43% fat
• “Vegan Heavy Cream” by Wassem Moarsi of Wassem Bakes
  • 200 g refined coconut oil: 500 g recipe → 40%
• “Vegan Whipped Cream” by Gretchen Price of Gretchen’s Vegan Bakery
  • 454 g refined coconut oil: 1,038 g recipe → 44%
• “Amazing Vegan Whipped Cream (Crème Chantilly)” by Raspbelyse, AKA the Berry Baker
  • 110 g cocoa butter + 76 g refined coconut oil: 611 g recipe → 30%
• “Heavy Whipping Cream Substitution” by Nora Taylor of Nora Cooks
  • 224 g refined coconut oil: 513 g recipe → 44%

The 36% fat ratio in “Easy DIY Heavy Cream Recipe in Just 5 Minutes” by America’s Test Kitchen was a helpful reference too.

@testkitchen

DIY heavy cream with two ingredients you probably already have in your fridge. Five minutes, no store run required. #AmericasTestKitchen #FoodMedia #Cream #Dairy

♬ original sound – America’s Test Kitchen – America’s Test Kitchen

I eliminated the outlying 30% fat recipe from Raspbelyse because cocoa butter forms a more complex and stronger network of fat crystals than refined coconut oil. I bet it’s great for this purpose! But it’s also less accessible, and not in the product I wanted to copy anyway.

Forty percent refined coconut oil (plus a little canola) turned out to be just right.

Gums

Raspbelyse did offer a useful technique: sprinkling on xanthan gum just before whipping vegan heavy cream to stabilize it. Between hers, Moarsi’s, and Price’s formulae, I knew xanthan gum was the way to go.

I also recommend guar gum for two reasons:

1. Most obviously, it’s in the product I was copying.
2. It prevents ice crystals from forming should you be using this recipe for ice “cream” or other frozen applications.

Small amounts of xanthan and guar gums in a 3:1 ratio are best for stability and texture; a stand mixer should whip your “cream” perfectly with no more than ⅛ tsp (0.63 mL) total. But if you’re using a hand mixer or otherwise need to troubleshoot, sprinkling on a little more xanthan à la Raspbelyse will rescue you.