Pumpkin Spice Whipped Cream

Pumpkin spice whipped cream is the perfect topping for your favorite desserts. It only takes a few minutes and a handful of ingredients for delicious whipped cream that is so much better than store bought.

Homemade whipped cream is a must-have this holiday season. Any slice of pie or cup of coffee, cider or hot chocolate goes from good to great in an instant with a big dollop of homemade whipped cream.

Made with only a few simple ingredients, this pumpkin spice whipped cream is perfect for all your favorite fall drinks and desserts. Pumpkin pie spice doesn’t actually contain any pumpkin – it is just a great blend of fall spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. This whipped cream would be perfect on your homemade pumpkin spice lattes or pumpkin pie cheesecake, and also completely delicious on non-pumpkin treats like mini apple crumble tart.

Homemade whipped cream not only tastes better than what you can get from the grocery store, but it’s made with all real food ingredients. There’s no need to eat the hydrogenated oils and preservatives in cool whip when you can make your own pumpkin spice whipped cream at home in less than five minutes.

You Will Love This

• Homemade whipped cream is a super simple way to elevate your favorite fall dessert.
• You can control the ingredients in your homemade whipped cream, and avoid the highly processed options at the store!
• Once you master homemade whipped cream, the flavor varieties are endless! Peppermint or chocolate whipped cream would be great for a hot chocolate bar. Strawberry would be perfect for summer desserts.

Ingredients

For this easy homemade whipped cream recipe, you need the following simple ingredients (exact measurements are in the recipe card below):

• Heavy whipping cream: Heavy cream is required for making homemade whipped cream. You need the higher milk fat content to get the right creamy texture. Half and half, milk or other substitutes are not recommended and may not work.
• Powdered sugar: This recipe makes a lightly sweetened whipped cream. You can add up to 2 more tablespoons of powdered sugar for a sweeter whipped cream, more similar to store-bought.
• Vanilla extract
• Pumpkin pie spice: Pumpkin pie spice is a spice blend with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. It’s a versatile fall blend that is great for a lot more than just pumpkin pie!
• Pumpkin puree (optional): If you want a true pumpkin flavor in your whipped cream, you can add pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) after whipping. This will give your whipped cream a much more pumpkin-forward flavor and a slightly orange color, in which case I would just use it on pumpkin desserts and coffees!

Equipment

For this recipe, you will need an electric mixer. I used my KitchenAid stand mixer with the whisk attachment, but you can also use a large bowl with a handheld mixer.

Instructions

Step One: Add all of the ingredients (except pumpkin puree) to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix the ingredients on medium-high speed until medium peaks form, about 3-4 minutes. Be careful not to over-mix, or your whipped cream will become gritty. If you are worried you may over-mix, stop when soft peaks form and whisk by hand to reach medium peaks. (What are soft and medium peaks, you ask?? See the questions below.)

Step Two: If you are using optional pumpkin puree, fold it into the whipped cream with a spatula until just combined.

Step Three: Add your delicious homemade whipped cream to your favorite pumpkin recipes or fall coffee and enjoy!

Storage

For best results, enjoy your whipped cream right away. Whipped cream will keep in the refrigerator for a day or two, but it will lose some of its volume and texture. If you are making your whipped cream ahead, I recommend giving it a quick whisk again before serving to help it regain some fluffiness.

What do medium peaks look like?

When whipping things like cream or egg whites, there are several stage of “peaks” to watch for. First, your cream mixture will have no peaks. It will just slide right off your beater and back into the bowl.

Then, your cream will start to thicken up a little and hold onto the whisk when lifted. You will see trails in the cream when you lift out the whisk, but the cream will not yet stand up on the whisk. This is called “soft peaks.”

When your cream thickens up even more so that it holds its shape on the whisk, it has reached “medium peaks.” At a medium peak stage, the tip of the peak will curl over at the top (like a soft serve ice cream cone). This is the perfect stage for whipped cream.

If you continue to beat cream beyond a medium peak stage, it will reach stiff peaks which will stand straight up off the beaters. Shortly after stiff peaks form, the whipped cream will start to curdle and become gritty.

Help, I over-mixed and my whipped cream is gritty!

There are two options. If you just slightly over-mixed your whipped cream, add a little bit more cold cream to the bowl and fold it in with a spatula until your cream regains a smooth texture. If you have way overdone it, add a pinch of salt to your mixture and continue to whip for another 4-5 minutes, and you will have a yummy pumpkin spice flavor butter!