Italian & French Butter Cream Or Swiss Meringue Cream

During the Chinese New Year, I've taken 2 weeks time off work and have started my own little project since after the Chinese New Year trip. I'm glad I've finally made it. On this little project, I've learned the differences between the Italian cream, French cream and Swiss meringue cream. I am actually having some problem dueling with the store bought whipping cream, non-dairy or dairy especially for long distance delivery. It can't stand for long unless you've a good storage box for it. And here comes the perfect cream to solve the problem.

ITALIAN BUTTER CREAM
Italian butter cream is prepared by adding the hot syrup which by heating sugar & water till dissolved, to egg whites whipped to peak foam.

Firstly, beat egg white till peak foam then set aside. Next, heat sugar and water till dissolved then slowly stir hot syrup into whipped egg white bit by bit. Continue beating the egg white till everything completed. The mixture will became lukewarm. The hot syrup will helps to cook the egg white which is good.

Ingredients :
3 egg white
200gm  sugar
60ml  water
300gm cold butter, chopped
*1 TB vanilla extract or any other flavouring as desired
a pinch of salt, optional

Next, add in cold butter little by little and continue beating the egg white mixture till everything completed.

The mixture will look something like this at the beginning. Don't worried ! Just continue beating the mixture for another couple of minutes and it will set & turn to smooth & creamy butter cream. You may reduce the butter for lighter cream. But the cream stands better and longer by using more butter.

*Tips : if the mixture is still too runny, whisk in an extra 40-50gm of butter. The quantity of syrup may reduce  rapidly if you're using a common steel pot for cooking. Of coz, there will be a deference when you're using a non-stick pot. Try to cook an extra few minutes to get thicker syrup when you're a non-stick pot.

SWISS MERINGUE BUTTER CREAM
Swiss meringue butter cream is prepared by cooking egg white & sugar in a bowl over a pot of boiling water without touching the water. Stir egg white gradually while heating, till it begins bubbling and turned foamy. Then quickly remove from heat and transfer the mixture to another bowl, continue beating till the egg white became peak foam. Add in butter little by little till everything completed and continue beating till the mixture became smooth & creamy. It looks almost the same as the Italian butter cream but softer due to less butter is used.

Ingredients :
3 egg whites
180gm  sugar
200gm  cold butter, chopped
*1 TB vanilla extract or any flavouring as desired
a pinch of salt, optional

FRENCH BUTTER CREAM
French butter cream is also prepared the same way as the Italian butter cream by adding hot syrup to beaten eggs, except that French cream uses egg yolk instead of egg white. And it looks more to custard like cream compare to meringue butter cream.

Firstly, beat egg yolk till pale & light then set aside. Next, heat sugar and water till dissolved then slowly stir hot syrup into beaten egg yolk bit by bit. Continue beating the egg white till everything completed. The mixture will became lukewarm. The hot syrup will helps to cook the egg yolk which is good.

Ingredients :

3 egg yolk

180gm  sugar
3 TB  water
230gm  cold butter, chopped
*1 TB vanilla extract or any flavouring as desired
a pinch of salt, optional

Next, add in cold butter little by little and continue beating the mixture till everything completed.

The mixture will became smooth & creamy and quite yellowish compare to meringue butter cream. Yet beautiful.

Well, did you notice the differences between the two cream? The French butter cream looks yellowish and  very much similar to Bavarian cream but Bavarian cream uses more egg yolk & gelatine. So finally, another mission accomplished ! Clap..clap...clap.... :o)