Allahabadi Fruit Cream

Fruit Cream is one of the gourmet desserts of my hometown – Allahabad. It is prepared by mixing finely chopped colorful fruits and nuts with freshly whipped cream. Growing up I must have had it hundreds of time and needless to say I still love it! When Debarshi suggested to include this in our North Indian themed get together party, my immediate reaction was, “This will be perfect!”. 

I think it is absolutely amazing how food is intertwined to any person’s life. Of course when I was in Allahabad, I could enjoy Fruit Cream whenever I wanted and hence it never occurred to me that I can prepare this at home myself! Let me tell you that in Allahabad, Fruit Cream is served in the traditional way - in a clay cup. This clay cup is handmade on a pottery wheel and is not only environment friendly but also instills an earthy smell in the cream. Furthermore, the fresh fruits and nuts add a mouthwatering flavor in the cream. It is served cold and hence is a summer dessert.

The online recipes suggested to get readymade cream (or cool whip), but we decided to prepare it from scratch and it turned out to be the best decision for this dish. Believe me cool whip can never compare with the homemade thick cream which is pretty easy to prepare if you have a stand mixer or hand mixer at home. Once the cream is ready, mix all your favorite fruits and nuts in it, cover and refrigerate. Before serving to guests, don’t forget to ask them for any dietary restrictions or allergies. Serve the fruit cream cold in beautiful bowls and enjoy!

Ingredients for the Whipped Cream:

(Stand Mixer recommended recipe)

• Heavy Cream - 2 cups 
• Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon 
• Confectioners' Sugar - 2 tablespoons

Fruits and Nuts:

• Grapes - ½ cup
• Banana - ½
• Apple - ½
• Cashews – 1-2 tablespoons
• Pomegranate seeds - ½ cup 
• Golden Raisins - ½ cup 

Tips:

• Make Confectioners' Sugar at home - Pour granulated sugar into a blender or food processor. Blend the sugar until it is a fine, fluffy powdered sugar. The more refined, whiter sugars will make the fluffiest powdered sugars. You can use the powdered sugar immediately or save it for later (If using Nutri bullet, use the milling blade).
• Do not use the beater and bowl directly after washing as the water may be hot and it will immediately warm up the cream.
• Keep the cream refrigerated until you're ready to whip it. Keeping everything cold is important.
• Heavy whipping cream is usually available in the dairy section of any grocery store. Always check the expiration date prior purchasing it. I used the below brand:

Let’s do some preparations:

• Half an hour prior making the Whipped cream, keep the beater and the bowl in the refrigerator so that they chill.
• Chop all the fruits and nuts into small pieces.

Directions to prepare the Whipped Cream:

• Pour the Heavy Cream in the stand mixer’s bowl. 
• Add the Vanilla Extract.
• Attach the beater.

• The frothy and bubbly stage: Let’s start the whipping, start on low speed then after a few seconds increase the mixer speed to medium. For the first several minutes, the cream will be very frothy and bubbly (hence the stage name).

• The soft plop stage: Continue to whip till you start seeing trails in the cream. Trails will usually appear after 4 to 5 minutes. When you start to see trails in the cream that don't immediately dissolve after the whisk moves, you've reached what's called the "soft plop" stage. If you take your whisk out of the bowl, the whipped cream will barely hold to the whisk. Have patience, you still have to whip for quite sometime. I actually increased the mixer’s speed at this time but let me tell you, by increasing the speed you are decreasing the whipping time so be careful, extra whipping will result in butter.

• The soft peak stage: Keep a watch for soft peaks which will appear after 6 to 7 minutes. When the trails in the cream become more solid and a dribble of whipped cream stays floating on the surface of the cream, you've reached "soft peak" stage. If you take your whisk out of the bowl, more of the cream will cling to the whisk but any peaks will quickly soften.

• The soft tip stage: If you notice in the above photo, the consistency of the cream has beginning to change. You will start noticing firm peaks in 7 to 8 minutes. This means that the trails in the cream will become stiffer and stiffer, and the cream will start to take on volume. If you take your whisk out of the cream, the peaks in the whipped cream will hold firmly but have slightly softened tips. This is typically the best stage to stop whipping and serve the cream.

• Finally Whipped Cream - the stiff cream stage: After the soft tip stage, be very careful not to over whip. You will notice firm peaks in about 8 to 9 minutes. If you continue whipping, the cream will stiffen even more and you might notice it taking on a grainy texture. If you take your whisk out of the cream, the peaks will be completely stiff. If you whip much more beyond this stage, you'll make butter so be careful and keep checking the consistency. I think this is the perfect stage for the Fruit Cream so I continued till this stage.

• Serve or store: Once you've reached your ideal stage of whipped cream, serve the whipped cream immediately or cover and store it in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Tips:

• Cream roughly doubles when it is whipped so two cups of cream will make about four cups of whipped cream, which is enough to make Fruit cream for 10-12 people.
• The times given above are using a stand mixer on medium speed. If you use a higher speed, the time between stages will be shorter. If you are whipping by hand, the times will likely be longer. Do not use a fork to whip the cream, I tried and it took me forever, finally I gave up at the soft plop stage.

Directions to prepare the Fruit Cream:

• Take a big bowl and transfer all the chopped fruits and nuts in it.

• Slowly transfer the whipped cream into the bowl.

• Using a spatula, gently fold all the fruits and nuts into the cream.

• Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 
• To serve, use beautiful small bowls, dessert cups or shot glasses. Serve cold.

Tips:

• Make sure not to slice the banana too soon otherwise it will change to a dull brown color.
• The best part of this dish is, you can add your favorite fruits and nuts in it. You can make it more colorful by adding fruits of different colors like Mango, Kiwi or Peach.  You can also add Pecans, dried Cranberries and Pistachios in it to create a different flavor. However, the fruits and nuts given in the recipe are the actual ingredients used in the Allahabadi Fruit Cream so I would urge you to try it as it is at least the first time so that you know the actual gourmet taste of the dish.
• If you have some leftover Whipped cream, you can always freeze it. It can be frozen with the nuts in it. Before serving, thaw it by keeping outside for an hour or overnight in the fridge. Add fresh fruits and serve.
• If you don’t have a stand mixer or hand mixer at home, you can use any ready made store bought whipped cream or cool whip. Adjust the sweetness by adding some Confectioner sugar in it.

Recommended Reading:

• Debarshi’s Amuse Bouche
• Tomato Basil Soup
• Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting
• Whip the Cream for Black Forest Gateau
• Loknath wali Meethi Lassi (Sweet Yogurt based drink)
• Make Homemade Butter from Spoiled Cream
• Moong Dal ka Halwa (Indian Yellow Lentils Dessert)
• Rabri (Clotted Cream in Condensed Milk)
• Sevai ki Kheer (Semai Payesh / Vermicelli Pudding)
• Dry Fruit Laddu (Mamma’s homemade sweets with dry fruits)
• Gujiya (Crispy Flaky Indian Sweet Dumpling stuffed with Milk Solids and Nuts)
• Gajar ka Halwa (Indian Carrot Dessert)