homemade whipped cream

the first snow fell today and it was spectacular! the air grew colder as we made our way home from church, and we felt it in our bones-snow was coming! ben kept a watchful eye half glued to the window as we laid around on this quiet sunday afternoon. his dad later came home after doing a shoot and it were as though the snow was waiting for us all to be together, because moments later, think beautiful soft snowflakes made their descent, quickly and smoothly. the kids were ecstatic! our front entryway quickly formed a pile of its own-of snow gear, knit hats with pompoms sewed on, marshmallow snow pants slewn about, and sharp fuzzy mittens not strayed too far from their match. 
the three kids, along with their dad built themselves armor against the cold, but geared perfectly for a good old fashioned tromp in the snow. nathan was the last to go and he asked me softly, 

"would you mind making some hot chocolate for when the kids come back in?" of course! i only wish it was my brilliant idea. 

i proceeded to heat some left over cold farm fresh whole milk that i had picked up over at Kingma's market. I stirred in some Starbucks canister hot chocolate mix-it is some of the best, made with real cocoa powder and quality ingredients...i also mixed in a little heavy whipping cream as well as semi sweet chocolate chips because i really wanted to make some rich decadent hot chocolate, i knew this would take it up a notch. 

i heated everything in a sauce pan and in the mean time, i grabbed my kitchen aide bowl and whisk attachment and popped it in the freezer for a tenner. 

once i finished up with the hot chocolate, i lowered the heat down and let it simmer nice and easy, stirring and keeping things mixed up. 

i pulled the chilled metal bowl and whisk out of the freezer and i knew this would be a key component to getting perfectly mountain peak whipped topping. 

i poured in one cup of heavy whipping cream, about 1-2 heaping teaspoons of powdered sugar, and a half teaspoon of vanilla extract all into the bowl.

i let the kitchen aide do the rest of the work and switched it on to a three to four level and let the whisk whip and nay nay all the way to whipped cream-ville.

over all, i think it only took about 10-12 minutes for the whipped cream to take shape and i loved how it turned out. thick, light, fluffy, firm, sweet, subtle vanilla, and tasted crisp and farm fresh.

i put a generous dollop on each child's homemade mug of hot chocolate and it was a hit all around!!


for whipped cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1-2 tablespoons heaping powdered sugar
1 capful of vanilla extract

put bowl and whisk in freezer for 10-12 minutes before using 

whippppppp!!!