Mashed Potatoes With Creme Fraiche (The Only Recipe You Need) (2024)

FAQs

What can I use creme fraiche for? ›

Sour cream may contain thickening agents like gelatin or polysaccharides to create a smooth texture, while creme fraiche's fermentation process naturally produces a thicker texture than sour cream. Plus, sour cream has a tangier taste than creme fraiche, which has a rich and creamy taste.

Chicken or vegetable broth: You can use chicken or vegetable broth instead of milk or cream to add flavor and moisture to mashed potatoes. This is a good option for those who are lactose intolerant or vegan.

Instead of regular milk, pro chefs generally use a generous helping of buttermilk and plenty of half-and-half or (even better) heavy cream in their potatoes. If you think the bartenders up front are pouring heavy, they've got nothing on the cooks in the back who are in charge of the mashed potatoes.

The secret weapon, a good potato ricer (affiliate). This pushes the potatoes into strings, which helps them soak up every bit of the cream and achieve maximum fluffliness.

What Is Creme Fraiche Used For? Because of its high fat content, creme fraiche does not curdle when boiled, which makes it ideal to use as a thickener in sauces and soups. Creme is also used as a finishing touch for sauces and soups, or spooned over fruit or warm desserts such as cobblers.

Creme fraiche is a great substitute for cream or sour cream in many recipes. Creme fraiche is also ideal when cooking because it can be heated without the risk of curdling, so it's perfect for making velvety thick sauces. Dishes that use creme fraiche include cakes, dips, sauces, pasta and finger food.

Creme fraiche is thicker, richer (see: fat content), and less tangy than sour cream, and since it won't curdle if you boil it, it's great to use in soups and sauces.

It can also be whipped, and when sweetened with a little sugar and vanilla, it can be used in place of whipped cream. Or you can stir a little into your savoury sauces to thicken and enrich. Place a dollop on your baked potato, on scrambled eggs, or as an accompaniment to fish or poultry.

Double cream has a higher fat content – around 48-50 per cent, and it's not commonly available here. Crème fraîche, on the other hand, is cream that's had a culture added, making it slightly sour in flavour. It's around 40 per cent fat. If you're trying to cook healthily, however, cream is not an everyday ingredient.

Can I replace sour cream with crème fraîche? ›

If you can't find crème fraîche at your local grocery store, sour cream can be used as a 1:1 substitute, and vice versa. Just keep in mind that sour cream is a bit more sour in flavor and less rich than crème fraîche. "Crème fraîche can substitute in any recipe that calls for sour cream," suggests Druart.

Stirring In Cold Milk or Cream

Do not add cold milk or cream to the pot of piping hot potatoes. Not only will this cool the dish down, but the cold liquid will not absorb into the hot potatoes very well. Warm the liquid in a saucepan on the stovetop or in a glass measuring cup in the microwave.

Cold milk will just cool down the mash and you don't want that to happen. Cut as much butter as you need and put it into a bowl with the milk. Microwave the butter and milk until the butter has softened and the milk is nicely warmed. You don't need to boil the milk or heat it to any specific temperature.

Potatoes are like pasta, in that they leach starches into their cooking liquid. In the case of pasta, you want to reserve some of that liquid to give sauce a luscious shine and bind it to the noodles.

If you'd like to replicate his mouthwatering recipe, the chef used peeled Yukon Gold potatoes. He was sure to not rinse them too much as he wanted to keep the starch, explaining that the starch gives the mashed potatoes their depth and richness.

If you're looking for a fluffy, dry texture in a potato, especially for mashed, roasted, or fried potatoes, Gordon Ramsay suggests you opt for a floury type of potato like a King Edward, with a smooth, creamy flesh, a Desiree, which comes with red skin, or a Heritage potato, which comes in several different colors, ...

Sour cream adds a little bit of tangy flavor and a boost of richness to mashed potatoes. It's a fun change from the standard milk or cream and butter combo usually flavoring mashed taters. You can even try your hand at making homemade sour cream from heavy cream!

Adding egg yolks to a pot of mashed potatoes is an easy, dairy-free texture and taste upgrade that doesn't require any special techniques. The yolks harbor all the flavorful fats and emulsifying components and will thus effectively unify the fat and water in potatoes, translating to a smoother, uniformly creamy pot.