The Holidays are just around the corner and to kick start the festivities, I am sharing a few tricks on how to sweeten up the Holidays with Hood Cream!

Last week I was invited to a Holiday Cooking Class led by chef and spokesperson Chef Chris Coombs, featuring holiday inspired recipes using Hood® Cream. I was very excited to attend this cooking class, learn top secret techniques from Chef Chris Coombs and take my holiday cooking to the next level!

As a food blogger and avid home cook I always rely on high quality ingredients that can deliver consistently good results, so I was not at all surprised to learn that Hood Cream is also trusted by top chefs and professionals alike.

If you follow my blog for a while you’ve probably heard me saying these words before; the ingredients you choose make all the difference in a recipe. A good high-quality ingredient will make a good recipe great! In particular when it comes to the holidays, none of us can afford a mistake or inconsistent results. Stick with what works, and your recipes will be superior every time.

However, as familiar as I am with using Hood Cream in my recipes, Chef Chris Coombs taught us quite a few tricks which I will be sharing with you.

But before we move along, I must point out how beautifully decorated and super organized the event was, they even had embroidered aprons for us! Really adorable, setting the mood just right for a wonderful and festive holiday cooking class.

The Menu

First, Chef Chris Coombs showed us how he prepares his Hood Cream Mac and Cheese which smelled absolutely out of this world, turning our attention to the big creamy bowl he was religiously preparing. Right away I picked up on a common mistake of mine and I believe most of us tend to make. Chef Coombs explained that when it comes to cheese sauces the cream should just be hot enough to melt the cheese, too hot will break the emulsification.

This was easily the best mac and cheese I’ve ever had, perfect consistency, rich creaminess and delicious flavors!

Second up was Croquembouche!

Pronounced kräkəmbooSH, this French dessert is quite fascinating and incredibly fun to make! Honestly, I can’t wait to make this again and then devour it one by one 🙂

For the Croquembuche or little puffs of joy we used this recipe.

Chef Chris Coombs had us making whipped cream. When I was first handed a bowl and whisk, my heart jumped at the touch of a freezing set of tools, but Chef Coombs was right beside me explaining that in order to get the lightest and most stable whipped cream you must use a very cold bowl and whisk!

Bingo!

I think my kids will love me forever because from now on I shall be whipping up their favorite everything-topping in a matter a couple minutes, in fact I am so excited to make whipped cream again I might just go around offering -who wants whipped cream?!!

Now, to make croquembouche each puff ball is filled with pastry filling which is part cream base (chocolate, vanilla, pumpkin, etc…) folded into whipped cream. Each puff ball is then dipped into hot sugar (caramel) to coat and attached to another puff ball to form a tree, or a wreath, or whatever you like!

Really fun right? I made this beautiful and festive wreath which will look absolutely gorgeous on my holiday dinner table!

A few other general tips for using/ storing cream are;

• Don’t store cream in the fridge door. I think this is a common mistake we make but Chef Chris Coombs recommends storing it as far back in the fridge as you can because cream needs to stay cold. The door is often exposed to warm air, so the cream won’t stay as fresh and will spoil easier.
• Don’t buy more cream than you need. Make sense right? but we don’t always follow this rule. Cream being something we use everyday whether in our coffee or recipes, we naturally want to have a lot of it available but its probably best that we buy a fresh batch every time we shop.
• Don’t add cream to hot recipes during cooking. Only add it at the very end because cooking cream at too high temperature will cause it to curdle.

With all these tips and tricks on cooking with cream, I am confident that we will not long prolong it’s life but make the absolute best of it, taking our holiday recipes to the next level.

To learn more about Hood Cream, get recipe ideas and locate a store near you, visit their website!

This post has been sponsored by Hood Cream but all opinions stated are my own.