For An Easy Heavy Cream Substitute, Reach For Butter

It never fails — you come home from the store with a bounty of groceries, and when you get in the kitchen to make that luscious fettuccini Alfredo you've been thinking about all day, you realize you forgot heavy cream. Self-admonishing ensues as your dream of enjoying a creamy pasta dish seems to be going up in flames. However, you shouldn't put away those noodles just yet: If you have butter and milk, your pasta aspirations can still come true.

The first step is to create a double boiler by filling a saucepan with water and placing a mixing bowl with ¼ cup of butter over it. This is so the butter melts slowly and evenly — you don't want to end up with browned butter for heavy cream. Once it is partially liquified, remove it from the heat and start whisking until it is velvety and just barely melted.

Now slowly add ¾ cup milk to the fat while continuing to whisk. You want the two ingredients to combine as thoroughly as possible, and adding the milk to the butter gradually is the way to achieve this effect. It should take two or three minutes for the ingredients to blend, but if it begins to separate at any point, put it back on the double boiler and whisk until it becomes one.

The process is similar to using two ingredients to make your own buttermilk and creates one cup of heavy cream. If you need more, just remember to keep the ratio at three parts milk to one part melted butter. While this isn't quite the same as the store-bought version, it is one of the closest substitutes you can create.

There are some substitutes for heavy cream that will work in a pinch if you want to save a few minutes. Think cashew milk, coconut cream, and Greek yogurt. However, many of these alternatives bear additional flavors you might not want in your dish.

Heavy cream is rich, but the overall flavor is mild. Whole milk also has a mild flavor but lacks the same richness because it only contains about 3.5% fat — whereas heavy cream has roughly 10 times that amount. Most butter brands you buy in the store have around 80% fat and a mild flavor, making it the perfect ingredient to alter the texture of milk and create a heavy cream substitute.

The blend of milk and butter won't look the same as heavy cream, but it will add the richness you are looking for in most recipes. It also utilizes common ingredients many folks typically have on hand. Other alternatives, such as cashew milk and coconut cream, are often harder to find in most kitchens than heavy cream itself.