Chef John's Creme Fraiche

12 Reviews

Prep: 5 min
Ready In: 2 day 5 min

“Making creme fraiche is very easy and, once you taste the magic of homemade sour cream, you'll have a hard time not repeating this esoteric exercise. Sure it takes a couple days, but the effort is minimal and the payoff is marvelous.” - by Chef John

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons cultured buttermilk

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Metric US

Original recipe yields 1 pint

Directions

Combine cream and buttermilk in a glass jar. Cover tightly with cheesecloth (or any breathable material) and let sit at room temperature (70 to 75 degrees F (21 to 24 degrees C)) for 24 hours. Stir, screw on lid, and refrigerate for 24 hours before using.

Nutrition

Amount Per Serving (32 total)

Calories
52 cal
3%

Fat
5.5 g
8%

Carbs
0.5 g
< 1%

Based on a 2,000 calorie diet

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Reviews (12)

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Marianne

Jul. 2, 2012

"This is a marvelous recipe! I could put it on almost any food in my fridge! I found the correct cream at Trader Joe's, an organic one, and my buttermilk was by Knudsen. I was just going to make a h..." See morealf a batch but went for the whole thing. Am I ever glad! This is better than sour cream! Creme Fraiche doesn't have the same holding power of sour cream as far as consistency goes, and it's not quite as sour. But delicious it is! I highly recommend that you try this! Thank you, Chef John!"

William John

Oct. 7, 2012

"Ultra-pasteurized heavy whipping cream works just fine. I use it exclusively and it has never failed to make great Creme Fraiche. Don't waste your time looking for pasteurized. I use Ball canning jars..." See more to make this great sour cream in and will never buy another plastic tub of it."

ConkyJoe

Dec. 26, 2012

"The crème fraiche was made exactly as written, and used in conjunction with Chef John's Classic Beef Stroganoff recipe. We used pasteurized cream, and found it at Whole Foods. One cautionary note . . ..." See more. pasteurized cream has a fairly short shelf life so the crème fraiche will not last long in the fridge IF any is leftover. This added a special finishing touch to the beef stroganoff and so easy to make. Thank you, Chef John."

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