How to Make Sour Cream & Crème Fraîche ~naturally lactose free!

Sour Cream & Crème Fraîche are decadent, probiotic rich & give your body fat soluble vitamins A, D, E & K — essential for eyes, bones, skin & brain functioning.

They’re both lactose free because the 24 hour fermentation process makes sure the lactose has been eaten up by the good bugs.

I like to make double and triple batches to have plenty on hand!

**TIP: If it’s particularly cold in your house, put your covered jar in the oven with just the oven light on, making the cream just warm enough to ferment on time.

Sour Cream Recipe

Ingredients/Materials:

Raw/Unpasteurized Cream: 1 pint

Pasteurized Cream: 1 pint — organic (local/grass-fed best), NOT ultra homogenized or ultra pasteurized (it won’t properly ferment)

• heat on stove to 180°

• let cool to 110° & add to a glass jar with lid

1 quart jar (or 1/2 gal jar if doubling/tripling recipe)

Instructions

• Add 1 pint raw or cooled 110° pasteurized cream to a glass quart jar

• Cover with a lid (ensuring there’s at least 2” of space from the top), gently shake and place on the counter for 24 hrs or in a turned-off oven with the oven light on.

• Refrigerate & enjoy in soups (not too hot to keep the good bugs alive!), GAPS shakes, on top of russian custard, use to make ice cream + more!

Crème Fraîche Recipe

Ingredients/Materials:

Raw/Unpasteurized Cream: 1 pint

or

Pasteurized Cream: 1 pint — organic (local/grass-fed best), NOT ultra homogenized or ultra pasteurized (it won’t ferment properly)

1/4 cup starter of choice:

• Yogurt or whey from yogurt

• Kefir or whey from kefir

• Crème fraîche from a previous batch

  • Note: It’s recommended to start with yogurt when first introducing, and progress to using a kefir culture. Yogurt is a lot gentler at rebalancing the microbiome and kefir provides beneficial yeasts that have a stronger effect on pathogenic bacteria.

    Using a kefir starter once tolerated helps keep these good bugs in your system. It’s also away to get the benefits from kefir if you’re temporarily avoiding it in your diet due contipation.

Instructions

• Pasteruized cream: heat on stove to 180° & let cool to 110°

• Raw/unpasteurized cream: pour straight into your glass jar with 1/4 cup starter!

• Cover with a lid (ensuring there’s at least 2” of space from the top), gently shake and place on the counter for 24 hrs or in a turned-off oven with the oven light on.

• Refrigerate & enjoy in soups (not too hot to keep the good bugs alive!), GAPS shakes, on top of russian custard, use to make ice cream + more!

Which Starter to start with?:

Yogurt or whey from yogurt are more both more gentle places to start especially during Intro when you’re body is detoxifying a quite a bit.

Add in kefir or whey from kefir once you’ve introduced sour cream/crème fraîche successfully (~tsp at a time increasing over a few days in meat stock)

If you’ve got slo-mo bowels, and are having trouble tolerating straight kefir or yogurt because of it, making crème fraîche from a kefir or kefir whey starter (aka “kefir cream”) can give you the benefits of kefir while keeping your moves smoother.

• If you need to get things going slower: Make your crème fraîche with yogurt or kefir or whey from either & focus on consuming higher protein dairy like kefir & yogurt, and reduce higher fat dairy consumption like sour cream & creme friache

  **TIP: Change up the different starters you use once you tolerate all of them to vary the types of probiotics you’re eating.