double cream

1 3.0

Thick food made from milk with very high fat used as a dessert topping

noun
/ˈdʌb.əl kriːm/

: nata doble

I made this using 150g of double cream and 200g of milk chocolate.

OK, so Jane has used double cream on the top of her cake.

Examples

It's got eggs, sugar, touch of butter, double cream and a little bit of mascarpone.
OK, so Jane has used double cream on the top of her cake.

Zoe Sugg
Look at the state of this double cream meringue and sponge.
I start by whisking some double cream, sugar, vanilla extract and rasmalai milk.
Now and then I'll have half a cup of berries with thick double cream, clotted cream, or Greek yogurt, but not very often.

Blog text (28)
Is someone else's heavy or double cream the same as in Australia, where the heavy cream has a 45-50% fat content (but so good oozing over a warm pudding)?

Blog text (8)
For the filling, mix pumpkin puree with gorgonzola cheese (I go with twice as much pumpkin as cheese by weight) and a bit of double cream in a saucepan, plus some thyme or other herbs if you prefer.

Blog text (14)
I made a delicious chocolate mousse using 250ml of double cream for extra richness.
You can serve fresh strawberries with a dollop of double cream for a delightful dessert.
The recipe calls for double cream to create a smooth and creamy pasta sauce.

Synonyms

cream

vsdouble cream

864 1.0

Thick, fatty part of milk used in cooking and on food

is a specific very high fat form used as rich topping and in cooking

heavy cream

vsdouble cream

11 2.0

Thick milk with a lot of fat used to make food taste rich and smooth

has higher fat around forty eight percent giving richer texture and toppings

heavy whipping cream

vsdouble cream

1 2.7

A thick cream with a lot of fat used for whipping and cooking

is the same product but often called differently in other regions

How Rich

clotted cream

1 3.4

double cream

1 3.0

single cream

2.7

Surface Forms

double cream singular

double creams plural

Morphology

double + cream

The noun phrase is compositionally predictable: 'double' (twice/twofold) modifies 'cream' (dairy cream) to indicate a richer/high-fat variety, so a B1 learner who knows both words will infer it denotes very rich cream (even if they won't know the exact fat percentage). This follows a common adjective + noun pattern cross-linguistically and is therefore transparently interpretable from its constituents.

Etymology

Double cream may come from old dairy shops where double meant twice as much fat as normal cream, so the milk product was very thick and rich. That's why double cream today means a 'very rich' cream used on puddings and in cooking.