Half-and-half and heavy cream are not the same ingredients, and choosing the wrong one can leave you with an inedible dish. Not only do they have a different consistency, but they also don’t taste the same, even when baked into a dessert.
The 4 Differences Between Half-and-Half and Heavy Cream
1. The Fat Content
Despite its name, half-and-half is not 50% milk fat. Rather, it has a fat percentage of somewhere between 10%-18%. Heavy cream must have a milk fat percentage of over 36% to be labeled as such.
2. What It’s Made Of
Half-and-half is heavy cream mixed with an equal amount of milk, making it a mix between the two. Heavy cream is made from the milk fat collected during the milk-making process.
3. What You Can Make It Into
Heavy cream is famous because you can whip it into whipped cream with the right tools. On the other hand, half-and-half, no matter how hard you try, will never turn into whipped cream.
Additionally, half-and-half will curdle when used in hot recipes—so it is best saved for your coffee, or recipes cooked at a low heat. Heavy cream can be used for almost any dish, hot or cold.
4. Calorie Content
As you might expect, with its higher fat content, heavy cream has over twice the calories of half and half. It does, however, have more protein than half-and-half, and has marginally less sodium.
Can You Use Half-and-Half and Heavy Cream Interchangeably?
Heavy cream and half-and-half cannot be used interchangeably, except when adding it to your coffee or when making a creamy sauce over low heat. In all other recipes, you should never replace one ingredient with the other, as they cook differently, have different tastes, and don’t set the same way when baked.
Can You Turn Half-and-Half into Heavy Cream?
Half-and-half can be turned into heavy cream by adding some extra fat. Add ¼ cup of melted unsalted butter to ¾ cup of half and half. While this will work for almost any heavy cream recipe, do note that it won’t work for making whipped cream.
Can You Turn Heavy Cream into Half-and-Half?
For those who only have heavy cream but need half and half, you can make your own by mixing equal parts of whole milk and heavy cream together. The result can be used for any recipe which calls for half and half.
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