Creams in No Churn Coffee Ice Cream

Our answer

Nigella's One-Step No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream (from Nigellissima and on the Nigella website) is made by whipping double cream with condensed milk and espresso powder. The air trapped when the cream is whipped gives the ice cream its smooth texture. Unfortunately we would not recommend using creme fraiche as an alternative to the double cream.

Creme fraiche is a thickened, soured cream that has a fat content of between 15% for low fat versions and 30% for regular versions. It is commonly used in cooking as the slight tang can help to cut the richness of some sauces and the higher fat versions are usually stable in hot liquids. However the cream is difficult to whip on its own (the low fat versions will not whip at all) and so if it was used then the resulting ice cream would not be arated properly and so would be heavy and solid. The slightly sour flavour may also not be to everyone's liking. If you would like to reduce the fat slightly then you could use whipping cream (with a fat content of 30%) instead of double cream. If using whipping cream then we suggest whipping the cream to soft peaks first, before whisking in the remaining ingredients, as the lower fat content of the cream can make it difficult to whip once mixed with the condensed milk.